Dark Waters
by TheMaraudersMischiefManaged
Summary: A nameless girl trying to figure out who she is. A village's pariah who will do anything to prove his strength. Sometimes, to stay above the water, one must dive in first. But there's no guarantee one will ever rise again.
1. Chapter 1 - Breathing

**AN: So here it is. I finally managed to scrap enough courage to post my first fanfic in this site. First, I want to tell you guys that, as this is my first try ever, it won't be the best work out there, nor it is meant to be. In fact, this story has been inspired by numerous Naruto self-inserts I've read and loved, including, but not limited to, Dreaming of Sunshine by Silver Queen and her small series called Reincarnation Roulette, Iryo-nin Kasa by Vaengir, Mirage of Kaleidoscopes by SucreTeen123, Senkei by XxZuiliu, Shadowed Sun, Chipped Mask, Rotted Rowan and Decaying Bluebells, all by Darkpetal16, Clearing Mist by shadownumera, Déjà vu no Jutsu by Vixen Tail as well as Supernatural Crossover Girl's various stories about Naruto SI, all of them as incredible as the others. All those stories and more can be found in my favorites list and are the ones that inspired me to create my own. If any of the authors above is reading this, than please, let it be known that I admire your amazing work and hope you will enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed reading yours.**

**And now, on with the show. I present to you…**

**Summary:**

**_A nameless girl trying to figure out who she is…_**

_She dreams of lights and screams. She dreams of water and cold. She dreams of blood and death. Sometimes she is Elyse, sometimes she is a simple orphan girl from Kiri, and more often than not she is no one. But when she meets the man who claims to be her Father, she knows this: she will do anything to become strong, so that she will always be able to follow him to the end of the world if that's what it takes. Or that was the plan anyway, until she meets a shark-like boy with a grin that makes her heart pump with something she can't quite describe._

_**A village's pariah who will do anything to prove his strength…**_

_Kisame was just one of the many street rats that filled the Village of the Bloody Mist. He doesn't have many aspirations in life, apart from surviving day after day in the mist-clad island. Until fate (or a rock) dropped a little spitfire of a girl on his arms, who shows him exactly what he is missing. Forget about stealing or fishing, this boy here will become a shinobi come hell or high water. After all, someone has to protect his little one while out there on missions, right?_

_**Sometimes, to stay above the water, one must dive in first. But there's no guarantee one will ever rise again.**_

_Brought together by a river of endless possibilities, kept together by loneliness and pain, those two children raised in a island that might as well be Hell on Earth will grow wise and strong, or else perish under the dictatorship and ruthlessness of their home. Love and loyalty will be put under duress as they choose different paths to follow, but knowing all the while that they will always be brought together again. Be it as best friends and lovers… or as bitter enemies._

**Dark Waters**

**Chapter 1– Breathing**

_**.**_

_Do you know what it feels like to drown? Do you know what it feels like to die that way?_

_**.**_

_This is wrong, wrong, _**wrong**_ and shouldn't be happening, can't be happening and I can't breath, why can't I just breath? What is happening, where am I, where are my parents?! I'm scared, I want this to stop, stop, _**stop**_!_

**Ba-dump-ba-dump-ba-dump… ****Ba-dump… Ba-dump… … … … Ba-dump.**

**.**

Dying and being reborn shouldn't be a pleasant experience, especially if one remembers their past life.

**.**

_She can feel her heart beat. Does that mean she's alive? Or is she dead, and the sounds she listens to are just a figment of her imagination?_

_But if she's dead, then how can she imagine the steady sound of a beating heart?_

**Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump…**

_How can she _ignore it_? How can she dismiss the possibility she might have survived? That she might live? How can she not try and _hope_?_

_Hope?_

_How naïve._

_How foolish._

**.**

She was born the same way she died, among a storm, darkness and blood.

And the water, always the water. She was born, only to almost drown again.

_Ba-dump._

**.**

_This is Kirigakure._

**.**

She doesn't speak, and the adults think her mute. No one in the Orphanage bothers to teach her sign language as no one teaches her or the other children how to read or write. Why would they, if their jobs are only to feed them and ensure that they survive long enough to be enrolled in the Academy and become ninja? They will be trained to be killers, not scholars. Half of their village can't read.

So, really, why bother?

**.**

_Kirigakure is cold._

**.**

She is a sad, quiet child that doesn't interact with the other orphans. They don't know what goes around her head. They don't know why she seems so numb. They don't know that she's mourning.

She mourns for sunny days running in a grass field, for a house in top of a small hill. She mourns for a family out of her reach and faceless friends she has no hope of seeing ever again. For a life ripped away far too soon and memories steadily slipping away from her into the mist. She mourns, mourns and mourns, but nobody sees.

Nobody knows…

That she mourns for a name she can't remember anymore.

**.**

_This is Kirigakure, and everyone only cares for themselves._

**.**

She is disappointed when realizes that no one there cares enough to name her. She was found by a fisher inside a basket, half-drowned in a near beach, like an old wives' tale, and neither he nor the matrons bothered to give her a name.

She can't remember who she was, and now she is no one. She is only a face among hundreds, the black-haired girl, the brat or the mute.

"Musei", the children taunt her, with sneers and cruel smirks in their faces.

That isn't her name. She doesn't want it to be, but can't muster the energy to speak.

She just can't bring herself to care anymore, and has no one to call her by her name anyway. And she wonders, what is the meaning of this? Why she, of all people, was reborn? What was the reason of this new life, if she was so _alone_?

Who is she? Who is the silent dark-haired girl that doesn't sleep?

**.**

She is the girl who haunts the dark hallways of the Orphanage during the night, while everyone else sleeps, like the ghost of a child starved to death. She knows she looks the part, what with her small and frail body, horribly thin for a child her age, matted black hair that hangs limply around her gaunt and pale face and dark bags under her unnaturally colored eyes.

She doesn't speak because she mourns.

She doesn't sleep because she doesn't want to dream. She haunts the Orphanage during the night the same way her nightmares haunt her every step.

The dreams of a life before her own, of a death that still follows her now, keeps her awake with bags under her eyes, that conveniently covers a very small birth mark under her right eye.

She's three when she learns to sleep through the nightmares. The dark bags gradually disappear.

She's three when the matrons start to take note of her features.

She's three when she meets her father for the first time.

**.**

_Kirigakure is cruel._

**.**

Twenty years old Yagura doesn't know what to think when the Mizukage gives him one of the, admittedly, few files of Kiri's Orphanage. Looking at the paper in his hands, he has to admit he's surprised that there is a file at all, since a good administration work was something quite lacking in their village, especially when it concerns the Orphanage. There are simply too many kids there and more than half will be dead before even entering the Academy so why try to keep track of the little brats?

Moreover, he isn't interested in taking on a student, no matter how prodigious they may be, not now, not ever, and the Sandaime out of every one should know this best, as is not the title of sensei he wants, but that of Mizukage.

And if the man was actually senile enough to think Yagura wanted to adopt a child… It was really good that he was already planning to take his job.

But until the day comes when he takes the hat, orders are orders and he dutifully opens the file and flips through it. What he sees and reads almost make the blank mask he wore on his face for years crumble.

It's not possible. It's not true.

And the Sandaime Mizukage, the damned infuriating man, only smirks at him with sadistic amusement shining in his eyes before announcing in a deceptive happy tone:

"Congratulations, Yagura-kun. It's a girl."

It can't be.

**.**

He needs proof.

He needs to see her.

The thought comes uninvited, unwanted, and has Yagura gritting his teeth harshly.

But he doesn't think. That's how out of it he is, because he's Yagura, cool, emotionless, always logical Yagura and he does nothing without thinking first.

And yet, he stands and almost flies to the south of Kirigakure, where he knows the Orphanage stands. In mere seconds, he is in front of the looming stone building.

Kiri's Orphanage, much like the rest of the village, can be described in four words: dark, cold, miserable and wet. He idly notes that that hadn't changed in the twelve years he had left the place.

Yagura, show-casing stealth skills honed during more thana decade of shinobi life, slips into the always-present mist, unseen and unheard, his keen eyes already combing through the children, looking for a particular head of raven black hair and pale pink pupiless eyes.

As the minutes slowly ticked by and no sign of his supposed offspring appeared, the tension in his shoulder blades left and he released a sigh he hadn't know he was holding. It was only a lie then. Only an intricate plot of the Sandaime to throw him off balance, to make him worry about an imaginary child-

He whirls around, kunai already in his hand, ready to lash out and cut open someone's throat when he heard a small movement behind him…

Only to freeze in shock when he saw two big pink orbs staring back at him in fear and awe.

**.**

She had sensed him long before ever seeing him, and had the sneaking suspicion that, if he so wished, she would never lay her eyes on him even if he decided to parade in front of her over and over again. She had realized, a few weeks after she was reborn in this strange new world, that everyone around her seemed to have this strange blue energy inside them, some kind of 'aura'. Some were very small, like the babies and children around her age. Others were a little bigger, like the older pre-teens and matrons', but not overly impressive. But this man… he was like a roaring tsunami to the adult's pitiful puddles.

And she couldn't help but become helpless attracted to the energy around the mysterious male. She wanted to be near him. The man practically radiated power and confidence.

But no matter how much she wanted to be near him, she couldn't quite hide her fear when she saw him holding one very sharp-looking kunai, very different from the old and rusty ones some of the older boys had filched from the streets. She had no doubt that, unlike the aforementioned children, the man in front of her knew how to handle it and could (and probably would) use it to carve a very big and very painful gash on her.

She had seen that happen before. Bored men and women wearing headbands on their forehead that would come have a little 'fun' with the poor, poor orphans. Some of the younger kids didn't survive the 'games'.

With a sudden clarity that she hadn't had since waking up to discover she had been reincarnated, she realizes; she doesn't want to die. Not again.

With that thought in mind, she scrambled backwards hastily, or tried to. She stopped doing anything, including breathing, when she felt a hand grab the hem of her oversized shirt and lift her off ground. Then she thrashes around like a wild animal, desperately wriggling in his hold, kicking and punching and scratching because damn it all, she doesn't want to die again. Even if this new life has no meaning, no reason at all, even if she's so alone all the time, she doesn't want to experience the pain of death again. It was still too soon, too fresh…

"What is your name?"

She stops moving.

Did he just ask…?

No. No, it couldn't be. She was hallucinating, obviously. Evidently, the mist around them had finally managed to drive her insane (as if the whole reincarnation thing hadn't done that already) and now she was hearing voices. Because the man about to kill her wouldn't waste time asking his victim's name. The others never had.

"Are you deaf?" there was a sliver of irritation in the voice this time. "I asked you your name."

And only because she was sure she was already mad, she spoke for the very first time since being born in this strange new world. Her voice was cracked and hoarse for years of inactivity and she had to cough a little to form coherent words. "I don't have a name"

She waited to see how he would take her answer. Would he laugh in her face before slitting her throat? Would he mock her for being so unimportant that no one bothered to even give her a name? She wouldn't be surprised if he did, she expected it actually.

This is Kirigakure, and cruelty had long since become the norm.

What she did not expect however, was for the hand holding her in the air suddenly let go, and she would have fallen face first if not for her quick thinking. Even then, she ended up kneeling in the mud trying (and failing) to stand up on her feet.

"Huh, good reflexes" came the muttered whisper behind her. She didn't give it any attention, too worried about trying to spare her clothes the dirt. If one of the matrons caught her clothes this dirty, she would be in for one of the worst beatings in her life.

"Don't you have any name you like to call yourself?"

Giving up in her attempts to save her clothes and deeming it a lost cause, she turned to the man and glared at him angrily. Why the heck did he want to know so much?!

"The others call me Musei." It hurt to speak those words, admit that she really was nothing but a nameless not-quite-mute brat of a girl that wasn't important to anyone. She hated the man in front of her a little for forcing her to say it aloud.

The shinobi (for there was no doubt in her mind that the man in front of her was one of the silent assassins that would often come to scout potential talent and have 'fun' with the orphans) considered her words for a moment.

Finally, as if coming to a decision, he crouched down in front of her until they were at eye-level and stared into her eyes. A gasp escaped her throat when she saw him properly for the first time.

_He has eyes like mine…_

"This name doesn't fit someone like you. You are no mute, and from this day on aren't nameless. You are Kurai and my daughter."

_Kurai._

The words repeated themselves in her mind over and over again and she looked at him as if in a daze.

"_You are Kurai and my daughter."_

And she believed him.

**.**

"Kura-i"

She stares at the kanji that makes her name. It's a little wobbly, made by her pudgy, awful three years old hands, but it's her first time doing it, and she thinks it's not so bad. She turns her head to the side, where a young light grey-haired man is hunched over his own papers, trying to catch up to his readings.

They were in Yagura's small and cozy office, where he would take the time to teach her things other than the shinobi arts, like history, geography and math. He has been teaching her how to read and write for over a month now, since they discovered that it would take some weeks before her mistreated body could handle the training exercises he had planned to give her with some degree of success. To make up to him, she had thrown herself in studying their new language (something she's sure she has heard of before in her… other life. Japanese, maybe?) with a fervor that even surprised Yagura. Fortunately, her progress in that branch of studies was by leaps and bounds, which greatly pleased her father, she could tell, much to her guilty happiness.

"Otou-sama,"

It's strange to say that word. But it feels so good.

After a long pause, his eyes –so alike her own- flickers up from the scroll he's reading and zeroes on her. She feels her heart thump in excitement. _This_ is what she wants, what she wishes for. She craves her father's attention and approval and would do anything to please him as long as he _sees_ her. Yagura would often look at her, but he wouldn't _see_ her. No, it was like he was seeing another person in her place. When that happens, she wonders about a parent she hasn't met yet in this new life. She wonders where the woman that gave birth to her is and if she looks anything like her.

"What is it Kurai?"

She points mutely at her papers where she's been writing in for the past forty-five minutes, practicing her kanji.

Her father looks at her work with neutral and critical eyes before nodding solemnly. "It's passable. Keep up the good work."

And then unexpectedly, surprisingly, his hand comes down on the top of her head and tousles her black locks before vanishing as fast as it came. He goes back to his reading as if nothing ever happened, as if he hadn't just given Kurai his first form of physical affection, leaving her gawking at him with mouth hanging open.

She blinks at him, big pink eyes wide in wonder before turning back to her work, now determined more than ever to have it down before the day is over.

Kurai doesn't notice that her tongue is slightly sticking out in her state of concentration, a habit she hadn't had in her past life, a habit that had been passed down to this new body.

She doesn't notice the way her father looks at her with an almost invisible bitter-sweet smile, pupiless pink eyes clouded with memories of a laughing black-haired woman dancing in the mist.

They weren't a family. Not yet.

And Kurai accepted that. But she couldn't help but wonder…

**.**

Yagura was a hard taskmaster and a terrifyingly efficient teacher. He demanded nothing but absolute perfection from her, hardly gave any praise and was quick to point out the tiniest of mistakes, always in the same calm and neutral voice, followed by the use of physical and more-often-than-not brutal force if she was stupid enough to commit the same error twice. Her new father certainly was a firm believer of 'pain makes perfection'.

And Kurai wouldn't have it any other way.

Every morning she would wake up at the crack of dawn with bruises all over her body, tired and aching, wondering how she managed to drag herself to the bed the night before. She would go to the bathroom, run to the kitchen for a quick breakfast and then rush to the dojo for another day of lessons (read: torture).

But she didn't care about the bruises that littered her body, or the fact she had to wake up at an ungodly hour everyday or even about the fact that her father didn't exactly know how to act around her unless is during training, in which case, they weren't family, but master and student.

But it remained that Kurai didn't care. Because she finally had a purpose, something she could strive to achieve. After so much time wondering '_why her, why her of all people?_' she now had her answer.

"_You are weak but will grow strong. I will personally make sure of that. I will teach you and you will learn and grow and __**be loyal**__. You will be my weapon, my strongest tool."_

Yagura had given meaning to her existence, had given her something worth living for after so long trapped alone inside the Orphanage's confining grey walls.

But Kurai wasn't blind. She may have the body of a three-years-old and the mind of a young teenager, but was far from blind. She knew, or at least a part of her did, that her father was playing her, giving her bits of his attention and slivers of affection, making her love him and only him. She knew he was molding her to become the most powerful tool a ninja can have. He admitted it himself.

Loyalty is a precious and dangerous thing.

Blind loyalty even more.

After all, you don't have to worry about having your back stabbed when there is someone more than willing to take the killing blow for you.

**.**

Punch, double kick, another punch, _dodge_- too late.

The strength behind the hit took her by surprise and threw her off her feet. She landed on the hard floor in a crumpled mess of limbs, tasting dirt and blood in her mouth with a large bruise already forming at the side of her face.

"Get up"

The order, barely above a whisper, made her return to her senses immediately and stand up unsteadily on her feet. Sweat pooled around her forehead, cooling her down somewhat and her body shook with exertion.

"Come at me again. Be faster."

She obeyed.

In the end Kurai ended up with a broken nose, a busted lip, her face one big bruise along with the rest of her body and a dislocated shoulder. Yagura wasn't even breathing hard.

_That_ stung a little, but it only meant she had to do better next time. The moment the thought crossed her mind, she collapsed in a dead faint, her pathetic body pushed far beyond its limits.

She woke up the next morning in her bed, broken nose and dislocated shoulder miraculously healed and a sticky substance with a horrible medical smell splattered across her face in a careful fashion that made the aching pain easier to ignore. A glass of water and a plate of the day's breakfast were placed near her on the bed's nightstand so she wouldn't have to move too much to reach it.

A note could be seen near the glass of water. It took some seconds for her to work out what was written, but she hadn't been studying for nothing.

_You can take the day off. Tomorrow we will continue and you better dodge faster._

_P.S: There is more medicine in the cabinet in case you need it_.

There was no signature, but then, there was no need. A smile bloomed in her busted lips and her heart warmed.

They weren't a family. But maybe someday…

**.**

_Kirigakure is bloody._

**.**

Things changed after their fifth month living together. Her birthday came and went, she was four now and Yagura was hardly home, disappearing on a regular basis. The time he was there, he locked himself in his office for hours on end, doing only-Kami-knows-what, before leaving the house once more.

They didn't eat together anymore, nor did he spend his time teaching her something other than how to be a shinobi. The writing lessons were put on hold and the taijutsu ones became much more brutal. Then Yagura started to teach her chakra control exercises that, bluntly put, she sucked at. Apparently, it was because she had more chakra than normal for her age, which made control a difficult thing to achieve. And as more time passed, it became obvious that her father wasn't satisfied with her progress on both fields.

"Get up"

Kurai wanted to, but she couldn't move one finger. They were at it for more than one straight hour now and her body simply couldn't handle anymore. She tried to tell that to her father, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was a dry cough.

"Kurai, I said get up."

_I can't! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I can't!_

A hand closed around her shirt and lifted her in the air. "I said to get up. Now, Kurai!"

The almost shout of her father shocked her more than a slap in the face would have. Her father never raised his voice before. Never. It was almost like a fact of life: fire burned, water was wet, Yagura never shouted.

Her shock must have been apparent in her face because Yagura's own eyes widened and he dropped her like she had burned him. Kurai stood in the ground staring at him before lowering her eyes to the floor. She had the horrible urge to cry and had to blink her eyes furiously to stop herself from shedding any tear. 'Tears were for the weak and won't change anything', her father once told her during their first spar. If she wanted him to be proud of her, than she simply would have to try harder.

"Kurai."

She hesitantly looked up from the floor. Just because she had promised to train harder didn't mean she wouldn't cringe form the pain it will surely bring her. But when she met her father's gaze, his eyes appeared calmer, steadier.

He also seemed incredible tired.

"I didn't mean to shout at you. That was irresponsible of me. I'm just tired, it seems. All I need is one good night's rest to return to normal and-"

"How can you have a good night's rest if you don't sleep in your bed?" she interrupted him.

He seemed surprised for a moment before narrowing his eyes. "How did you know that I wasn't sleeping in my bed?"

She blushed for a second, quickly averting her eyes to the floor. Her answer came out in an unintelligible mumble.

"What? Speak up child. I won't listen to your grumbles."

"… I went to your room one night and saw the bed unused."

"And what were you doing in my room in the first place?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"… I had had a bad dream and was searching for…" _for you._ "Something to distract me and tried to find some scrolls about chakra exercises in your room, since you always lock your office after leaving. Your bed was empty." It was a reasonable enough excuse. She just hoped he would buy it.

Fortunately, he did. "I see. Well, I've been very busy and stressed these last few weeks, so a bed is a luxury I can't afford right now. However, that still doesn't justify or excuses my actions. I shouldn't have been taking it out on you and for that I apologize." Then he smiled, and Kurai thought how she has never seen something more beautiful than that.

"You've been doing extremely well for one so young and I have no doubts you will graduate early and make me proud. I have many expectations of you, my daughter."

Daughter.

Her heart felt warmer at his words. It weren't quite the words she _truly_ wanted to hear him say, but…

**Ba-dump.**

If that was all she could get from him, then she would take it and be happy with it.

If that was all he was willing to give her, than it was enough.

…

**AN: So, what do you think? Good, passable? Bad or absolutely horrible? Are you interested? Want to see more of Kurai and Yagura? If you do, then REVIEW! Also, if you have noticed any grammar error, please let me now so that it can be fixed. English is not my first language and as a human being I'm prone to commit mistakes, thank God.**


	2. Chapter 2 - Coming Winter Part 1

**AN: Chapter 2 is here, guys. Ah, and I also forgot to add the disclaimer. I own nothing of Naruto, I am just playing around with Kishimoto's characters.**

**Oh, and a special thanks to Wilhelm Wigworthy for being the first one to follow and review my story, as well to minimousestar and dreams-in-the-dirt for following.**

**Also, I think I have to put some warnings for this. The following chapter contains a severe case of animal cruelty (to the point of killing small, fluffy animals), trauma and/or triggers (I don't know which) and (memories of) death.**

**If any of the above warnings offends you, than please skip it while reading or stop reading this altogether.**

**And on with the story…**

**Dark Waters**

**Chapter 2 – Coming Winter Part 1**

**.**

**.**

Five months. Five months of living with her father in their property on the outskirts of the village, away from the majority of citizens where they could sit back in companionable silence and relax a little after a long day of studies and training. Five months of getting to know a side of her father that she had the sneaking suspicion not many saw.

She should have known that it was too good to be true. It wasn't meant to last.

The message came when they were training. They were in their dojo, with her showing Yagura the katas she had practiced the day before, feeling proud every time her father would nod at one particularly difficult stance, when a shinobi wearing a blue painted mask suddenly appeared in front of them. Kurai immediately recognized the mist shinobi as a hunter-nin. Her father had told her about them in passing, while he taught her the story of their village. Apparently, they were the elite of the elite, a branch of their village's ANBU. Also known as the Undertakers, the hunter-nins took the most dangerous of missions and were tasked with the job of hunting down any deserter of Kiri. Some of them were even the Mizukage's own bodyguards.

And looking at one of those infamous ninja in front of her for the first time in her life, Kurai believed her father's stories about those silent death shadows. There was simply something terrifying about the person hiding behind a mask before them and a primal instinct in her brain yelled at Kurai that he wouldn't have any qualms about killing her in the most painful way possible.

But the worst part was that she knew he would feel absolutely nothing as he cut her up. No guilt, no pleasure, no sadness, _nothing_. The only thing that painted mask seemed to say was "_Nothing personal, it's just business_".

Kurai felt a shiver travel down her spine and she almost wanted to hide behind her father, or at the very least hold his hand. The shinobi in front of her made her feel a kind of cold the mist that always surrounded Kirigakure never could. In fact, she was almost reaching for Yagura before stopping herself. She knew that such blatant show of weakness wouldn't be allowed by her father, so Kurai just became still as stone, her body ready to flee or fight at a moment's notice.

It was almost like her father had been expecting him, because he didn't even look surprised at the unexpected arrival and only nodded at the other shinobi. Thought Kurai caught the slight tightening of his shoulders. Her father was tense. That immediately made her wary; whatever could make Yagura tense, it was certainly something big and most probably, bad too.

"Mizukage-dono requires your presence at the Tower, Yagura-san" the hunter-nin's voice was completely devoid of emotion, more flat than her father's ever was.

The grey-haired man gave another small nod of acknowledgment, a quick flash of something running through his eyes, too fast for Kurai to say what it was.

"Tell him I will be there shortly."

"He requires your child's presence as well, Yagura-san."

Kurai's eyes widened and she whipped her head in Yagura's direction so fast it was a wonder her neck didn't break. What would Kirigakure's Sandaime Mizukage want with _her_?

She watched silently as her father's eyes narrowed.

"Very well. We will be there soon."

"I was ordered to escort both of you to the Tower."

Yagura lifted one brow. "If that is Hiyasu-sama's wishes, who am I to refuse?"

It was said in the same quiet, almost monotone, tone of voice her father always used, but there was an almost invisible edge to it, as if he was mocking the hunter-nin.

The ninja in question seemed to hear it as well, because for the first time there was some emotion in his voice, a sharpness of steel that threatened to cut down who it was directed to.

"Indeed, who are you compared to Hiyasu-dono?"

Her father smirked. "Someone far more important to him than you. Kurai, come."

"Hai, Otou-sama," was her dutiful answer.

She followed closely behind her father as he led her out of their house, through the mist and almost empty streets of their village, the hunter-nin silently moving behind them. The four years old took note of every stone building they passed, her eyes drinking all of it since it was the first time, apart from when she left the Orphanage with her father, that she could see the village she lived in. It was dangerous for an unaccompanied child her age to walk alone in those streets, so she made sure to stay close to her father, especially when someone would look their way.

They passed by what Kurai assumed was the village's market in the square, by the decrepit looking stalls huddled together in a corner and pressed against each other, half of them smelling of fish, Kirigakure's main fund of income aside from shinobi's high-ranking missions, and the other half trying to sell vegetables and fruits that had seen better days once upon a time.

"Kurai."

The sound of her name made her snap to attention instead of staring at some pre-teens that were searching the trash bins for food. Unfortunately, it wasn't an uncommon sight in Kiri. It was then that she saw what had made her father call out to her; they had already arrived at the Mizukage Tower.

She tilted her head to the side to have a better look. It wasn't near as impressive as she thought it would be. Rather, it was much like the rest of the village; one big chunk of grey stone that loomed over everything else. She felt a little disappointed, actually. Surely, as the Mizukage, the Sandaime could afford something more… aesthetically pleasing?

Dismissing her thoughts, she followed her father in entering the building, noting that their hunter-nin shadow had vanished while she was busy looking at the Tower. Perhaps, he had gone ahead to warn the Sandaime of their arrival?

She followed quietly as Yagura passed straight through a secretary that, after taking one look at him, left they go on without a word, barely throwing a glance her way. The woman's reaction made her think. Was her father such a familiar sight in the Mizukage Tower that the man's own secretary didn't even bother to ask what he was doing there? And if so, was her father an important shinobi? Kurai already knew he was powerful; there were never any doubts about that. But was he also important enough to chat with the Mizukage frequently?

Questions upon questions passed through her head as they climbed the stairs and neared the double door leading to the most powerful man in the village's office, with no answers in sight.

But the most pressing one remained in her mind even as her father knocked in the door's hard wood two times and a soft "Enter." answered them.

Why had the Sandaime asked her to come?

**.**

Cold.

That was the first word Kurai thought of when she saw the Sandaime Mizukage of Kirigakure no Sato, Kaguya Hiyasu, for the first time.

The funny thing was, at first glance, there was nothing strange about him. He wasn't tall nor was he short. He was mostly slim, if not outright thin, with a bit of muscle here and there, unlike her father that, for all of his child-like appearance, had a very well muscled and strong body; she had the bruises to prove just how strong he was. The man before them looked like a strong wind would knock him over. Hiyasu's long hair was also a very pale blue, almost-but-not-quite white that reached past his shoulders in a simple low ponytail, a few strands framing his slight handsome face that processed high cheekbones and a strong jaw, along with small blue dots on his otherwise clear forehead. Wearing the standard Kiri shinobi uniform, the only thing marking him as the Mizukage was the triangle-shaped hat with the kanji for water in the front. Other than that, he appeared to be your run-in-the-mill Kiri-nin in his mid-forties.

But then you would look into his eyes, and any thought of him being normal would die a swift and painful death.

Kurai never thought possible that the color brown could appear so cold. When she saw the Mizukage's eyes, she literally felt the temperature in the room drop and a chill made her body tremble.

And he wasn't even looking at her yet!

"Ah, Yagura-kun. How good it is to see you after so many months since the last time I had the pleasure of your company. I hope that the time off-duty I lend to you is being used wisely?"

"You know me, Mizukage-sama. I never waste a good opportunity."

Kurai didn't think her father was talking about the same thing.

"There is no need for such formalities Yagura-kun. After all, we are alone here," the Mizukage paused for a moment before continuing as if in afterthought. "Or as alone as a Kage can be without the danger of being under protected, of course."

Her father nodded. "Of course."

Hiyasu clapped his hands together and his mouth opened in a giant grin that almost split his face in two, displaying rows of sharp white teeth. It was almost painful to look at. For all intents and purposes, one would think he was excited, happy even. But the eyes spoiled the almost perfect mask. No matter how much his handsome face would beam at them or how much his voice would drip honeyed words, his brown eyes would stay the same twin ice orbs, sucking all the warmth out of everything his gaze landed upon.

"Well then, how about you introduce me to your little one? I've been dying to meet her!" he cowed.

She tensed, and her father's hand came to rest on her shoulder, gently pushing her forward.

"So, this is her, hn? Come here little one, I won't bite… much."

Somehow, that wasn't very reassuring. Especially when looking at those shark-like teeth.

She took small steps forward, her father's hand in her shoulder the only incentive she needed. _Don't disappoint me_.

Kurai stilled herself. She wouldn't.

_**Ba-dump.**_

When she was right in front of Hiyasu, said man crouched down to her level, like her father had done many months ago. "What is your name, sweet girl?" he asked pleasantly.

"Kurai, Mizukage-sama." She was proud that her voice didn't falter once, despite the fear that was slowly poisoning her from the inside out.

"Kurai, hn?" he repeated slowly, tasting her name in his tongue, frowning. Said girl had to suppress a shiver. She didn't like the way he said her name. "Not bad, thought if it had been me, I would have named you Sakura. Just look at those eyes of yours… So pretty."

With her back to her father, she didn't see the narrowing of Yagura's eyes at the Sandaime's words. Regardless, she didn't like the way Hiyasu was talking. Her father had given her that name and she would treasure it for the rest of her life and damn anyone who thought otherwise.

"With all due respect, Mizukage-sama, but I quite like my name,"

Stunned silence met her words and suddenly, she felt horribly foolish. He was the Mizukage! She had probably offended him or something and her father… Oh, Kami, her _father_. This time, she did flinch. He would be furious with her. Through her idiotic words, she had shamed him! He must be _so_ disappointed-

"AHAHAHAHAHA! Look at this, like father, like daughter! That tongue of yours will get you in trouble someday girl, I can already tell" the Sandaime chuckled some more, wiping imaginary tears from his cold, cold brown eyes before continuing. "But I have to give you points for boldness, if nothing else. Not many have the guts to contradict their Kage. You're just like your father when he was younger."

Was she? She dared a look behind her, but as expected, her father was absolutely blank.

'So, tell me Kurai-chan." She quickly returned her eyes to Hiyasu. Something told her that, thought he found her words amusing, she didn't think he would handle being ignored well. "Do you want to become a ninja?" Kurai felt her father's hand tighten his hold on her shoulder and knew she had to tread carefully.

"I will be whatever Otou-sama wants me to be," there, simple and to the point.

"Ah, so young," the Sandaime sighed wistfully. "So loyal. I bet you inherited that loyalty from your father. It certainly didn't come from the _other_ source."

The four years old blinked. 'Other source'? Was he talking about… her mother?

Her heart quickened its speed at his words.

"Dreadful business, very dreadful. Poor Yagura-kun, he was so heartbroken over-"

"I think it's enough talk about the past, don't you think Mizukage-sama?" steel laced her father's words and she knew that he was angry. No, scratch that, he was furious.

Something seemed to pass between the two males in the office, a private talk she was most definitely not privy to. For what seemed like the hundredth time, Kurai wondered what the hell was going on.

"Maybe you are right, Yagura-kun. I brought you here to talk about your darling daughter's future, not to reminisce about the golden days,"

"My daughter's future concerns her and myself, I dare say. What business would someone was busy was our village leader want with it?"

Kurai was becoming to get very nervous. What her father said, although in a polite manner, could be considered disrespectful. Hiyasu was the freaking Mizukage! He could lock Yagura in a mere whim. Why give him reason to do it?!

Fortunately, the Kaguya man only shushed her father, "Tut, tut, tut Yagura-kun. You know how much I care about family. Although we are not bound by blood, I definitely see you as my own son."

"I am honored that you think so highly of me, Mizukage-sama. But you need not to worry. I am teaching Kurai everything she needs to know to become successful in her life."

"I certainly hope so! Kurai-chan will need all the help she can get to pass the Academy Graduation Exam. But of course, with a father as talented as you, I'm sure she won't need luck."

Her father remained silent.

"When are you planning on enrolling her?" the Sandaime inquired.

"In times of peace, seven is the usual age to a child being enrolled in the Academy," was her father's neutral response.

"In other villages. But the Bloody Mist is not like the others now, is it? Besides," Hiyasu added dismissively. "We are shinobi. Peace is just another word for time-out. We will be back in war soon enough, the moment our enemies are done licking their wounds. I expect to see your beautiful daughter in the Academy the moment she turns five."

"She's still too young. She needs more tim-"

"She is your daughter. And _hers_… I'm certain that with a gene pool like that, she will have no problems catching up with the older children. You have my permission to move her training to outside the village walls to have more space, as long as she respects the curfew set around Kiri. Otherwise I fear you two will have to sleep in the cold." He didn't seem to find the thought as terrible as he made it sound. "Once Kurai-chan graduates, she will be allowed to use the training grounds reserved to shinobi," he looked at her father then, a smirk growing in his face by the minute. "Perhaps Training Ground 13? There are such good memories there after all."

Her father nodded stiffly. "I appreciate your kindness, Sandaime-sama. It means very much."

"No worries. You still have one more month off-duty, and if I were you, I would use the time to hire someone trustworthy to take care of your little one. Once your impromptus holidays are over I plan to give you some very long-term missions, I'm afraid. We are so short-staffed recently. I wonder why?" and then he giggled at his own words for reasons Kurai couldn't begin to understand.

It was official. Hiyasu Kaguya was crazy.

Thankfully, it seemed the visit was over, for her father began to guide her to the exit.

"Oh, and Kurai-chan…"

She really didn't want to turn, but since her father had stopped, she thought it would be best to follow his lead. Turning her head sideways, black curls falling down her face, she asked meekly "Yes, Mizukage-sama?"

He smiled at her from across the large mahogany desk he sat at, his eyes as icy as when she first saw them. "Someone as adorable was you can call me Hiyasu-oji. I'm sure we will see each other very soon."

Kurai certainly hoped not. Regardless, she nodded with what she hoped was a real smile and bowed just like her father had taught her. "It would be a pleasure to meet you again, Hiyasu-oji-sama."

Then Yagura all but pulled her out of the office, and she couldn't have been more grateful.

**.**

**.**

_She had thought the nightmares were over._

_She was wrong._

**.**

It began one morning, while she was making her laps outside the village walls, careful not to be noticed doing anything unusual by the guards posted around the area. The Mizukage may have granted her father permission to move her exercises outside the village but that didn't mean some fidget chunnin wouldn't think she was doing something suspicious (treasonous) and cart her off to Torture & Interrogation faster than one can say "Spy!".

Kurai did not want to pay a visit to _them_. Kiri's T&I department was feared throughout all the elemental nations as the number one place you did **not** want to end up in. The people working there were _sick_, end of story.

She was half-way through her second lap when she heard it. The sound of laughter came from her left, where one of the many rivers of Kiri ran. Against her better judgment, Kurai turned and steered towards all the noise, careful not to be heard.

A group of three boys stood next to the water, one of them holding a kitten by the scruff of its neck. The cat, a small cute black thing with a white tipped tail, was yowling and hissing to them, desperately squirming inside the boy's grasp in a futile attempt at freedom.

**Ba-dump.**

Why does she suddenly can hear her heartbeat so much louder in her ears?

"Let's see if the kitty can swim, uh?" the boy holding the cat mocked before promptly letting it go.

**Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump...**

The kitten fell straight into the river still yowling like a demon from hell with a loud splash. Kurai watched the small cat try to swim to land, but every time it tried, another one of the boys would throw pointy pebbles at it and soon, the water around the animal was pink with blood.

_**Ba-dump. Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump...**_

The cat tried to move to her side of the river, since there wasn't anyone there to throw things at it, but Kurai could see, even from this distance, that there was something wrong with one of its leg. The animal's right back paw was bent at an unnatural angle, obviously broken, and suddenly the feline wasn't trying to go to land as much as it was struggling to simply stay afloat.

_**Ba-dump-ba-dump-ba-dump-ba-dump-ba-dump...**_

Slowly but surely, the kitten began to sink, its cries for help drowned by the water and laughter of its tormentors.

Kurai knew she should go there and stop that show of typical Kiri cruelty. She knew she should save that cat. She knew she should do _something_. Anything.

She does nothing.

**Ba-dump.**

She wants to, really she does. But her body won't move. She is frozen with something akin to fear squishing her heart in a tight unrelenting grip and her eyes widen and darken with emotion, her breaths becoming labored. She does not fear the boys; they are civilians with incredible low chakra levels. A simple show of taijutsu would be enough to scare them away.

No, what she fears is much greater and terrifying than some rag-tag group of bullies.

It's the _water_.

**Ba-dump, ba-dump. Ba-dump.**

How ironic it is, to be reborn in an island, home to the most famous and feared water users of all the elemental nations after _drowning_ in her first life?

_How fucking ironic._

She stays rooted to her spot, watching unblinkingly as the cat's struggles finally ceases and the dead body is carried down by the current, dragged to the bottom of the river where it will never see the light of day again.

_**Ba-dump.**_

The boys left after realizing their victim was already dead and silence descends into the clearing once more, like nothing uncommon had happened there only minutes before. After some minutes of staring blankly ahead, she turns around and leaves.

By the time Kurai is finished with her laps and stands next to her father in their dojo, the cat's cries still rings in her ears.

She wonders if they will ever leave, as Yagura engages her in a spar.

_**Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump.**_

**.**

That same night, she dreams.

She is at the river, in the same spot behind the bushes as before, and watching as the boys throw the kitten in the river. But then, suddenly, she is the kitten, and she can't swim. Something is holding her in place, pushing and pushing, dragging her under and she can't breathe. Water is invading her mouth, her nose, her lungs, carving a path inside her _that burns_ and all around her she can listen to peoples' screams and feel hands tearing at her, scratching her and she's falling, falling and drowning, being dragged under the ice-cold black water, never to see the light of day again-

"Wake up Kurai!"

Dark pink eyes shot open, wide and terrified, another wordless scream in the tip of her tongue. Disoriented, she lashes out, throwing herself away from the person holding her, all the while feeling the reminiscent numbness of the dream's cold water on her body, shivering uncontrollably from the sheer terror the nightmare-turned-memory gave her.

"Kurai."

… Kurai? That is her name, isn't it? Or is it something else?

But… What else could it be? What other name does she have?

She doesn't know. How can she not know?

"_Kurai_."

She looks up from her position on the floor, blank eyes staring at the person calling her that name. She starts when she sees a young-looking light-grey haired male calmly looking at her, impassive and neutral as always. The young man holds out a small child-like hand.

"Come here, daughter."

Daughter.

She is someone's daughter, isn't she? She has a father.

Her Otou-sama, Yagura.

Her Otou-sama had given her a name when no one else would. He had named her…

Kurai gasps in fright and launches herself into her father's lap, finally letting the tears she had been holding back since she was born fall free, staining her father's clothes. Sobs shakes her diminutive body and she clings to Yagura as if he was the only driftwood in open sea.

"What were you dreaming about?" her father asks, mildly curious, one eyebrow quirked up as he watched her trembling body finally begin to calm down after almost five minutes of shaking.

"… I-I…" she didn't want to tell him. She didn't want him to think her weak. But she didn't want him thinking her a liar either. "I dreamed I was dying."

A warm hand brushed her hair out of her face and she pressed herself against it, like a cat seeking caress from her master. "Did you? How?"

The word came out as a whisper. "I drowned."

The hand stopped. "Drowned?" the slight disbelief coloring his words were plain to heard. "You live in Kirigakure, the Village Hidden in the Mist. How can you be afraid of drowning?"

She didn't answer, too ashamed to say anything. And even if she did, he wouldn't believe her. Who would?

A sigh escaped her father's mouth at her stubborn silence.

"Listen, Kurai. As a shinobi, you can't fear anything. If you do, it can be used against you in battle and it can cost you your life and the mission. You must confront this irrational fear now, or risk paying the price for it later."

Yagura stood up then, gently but firmly prying her fingers away from his clothes and moving to the door.

Panicking that he would leave her alone, Kurai spoke before she could control herself.

"Wait!"

He stopped, but didn't look back. Kurai opened her mouth before closing it when she realized she had nothing to say. Finally, she hung her head in defeat. What could she say? He was right, of course. She needed to confront her nightmares alone, but…

She only wanted…

When she spoke no more, Yagura left, closing the door softly behind him.

**Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump…**

She only wanted to hear him say that he cared.

**Ba-dump.**

How naïve.

**.**

After three nights of consecutive nightmares, Kurai was at her wit's end and so was Yagura.

The sleepless nights begun to affect her training and it had reached the point that her father blatantly refused to keep training her if she was going to act like a traumatized zombie that would jump ten meters in the air at the slightest unexpected sound. Of course, he said much more eloquently than that, but the end result was the same.

Until she overcame her fear, he wouldn't spend any of his precious time on her.

And that was why she was standing right in front of the river she had seen a cat drown in four days ago. She would overcome her fear today. She would go into the water and come back to their house to show her father that she could do it.

She would do it. For her Otou-sama, she would do anything.

Her determination wavered, however, when she looked into the deep dark river.

The she shook her head. She lived in an island for Kami's sake! She had to learn how to swim. It couldn't be that hard, right? She had seen the other children playing by a smaller river behind the Orphanage and everyone could swim then.

Everyone, but her.

Gulping, Kurai made her way through the dense mist (and was it her imagination or had the mist thickened while she was thinking?), stopping barely two centimeters before her feet could touch the water. Sighing, she crouched down and took off her standard blue shinobi sandals, as well as her shirt, leaving only her black shorts. She wasn't worried about someone seeing her half-naked. She was four years old; it wasn't like there was something to see. Besides, Kurai was outside the village, so there was _no one_ to see something.

Carefully putting her clothes away, she walked until her feet were fully submerged in the water. She could feel the current running through her toes and it was _so cold_; a whimper left her lips and she had to fight just to stay in place instead of running away.

**Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump.**

She could do this, she could do this.

**Ba-dump.**

Maybe if Kurai told herself that long enough, she would start believing it.

Reluctantly, she took a few more steps forward, the water now at her knees, feeling for the smooth rock that supported her feet. As long as she stayed in the rock, she would be fine.

**Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump...**

Feeling a little more daring, Kurai took a deep breath and slowly lowered herself until the water reached a little above her waist. So far, so good.

She was ready to take one more step when she heard a splashing sound down river followed by intense cursing that made her red in the face. Who…?

Then something hit her in the back and all hell broke loose.

**.**

**.**

Kisame Hoshigaki was very smart kid.

Not academically smart, no. The boy didn't even know how to write his own name. He doubted that he ever would.

No, Kisame Hoshigaki was what you would call street-wise.

Being abandoned to die by his family the moment he was born because of his strange coloring, Kisame had to learn well, and learn fast, how to survive in the cruel street life of Kirigakure. And learn he did.

He learned how to avoid Kiri-nin with the bored look in their faces that would wander around the village, less he became their entertainment. He learned to never, ever, try to pick-pocket those same people, because no matter how hard he tried, there was no way he would ever gain anything but a broken hand, or even worse.

He learned how to run from angry shop-keepers, using every short-cut he knew to confuse them and escape, he learned how to hide what he stole, keep his head down around the village ninjas and, especially, how to fight other street kids that dared to enter _his_ territory.

But more than that, Kisame learned to always, _always_ look out for himself. Because there was no one else who would do it for him. Not anymore, at least.

The six years old boy shook his head at the direction of his thoughts. This wasn't the time to wallow in self-pity, damnit. He was _outside_, and had to be careful not to be noticed by any patrols. If he was found out, he could get sent to an Orphanage. Or worse, to T&I.

Kisame shuddered. He had heard the stories and rumors going about that department and had no wish to find out by himself if they were true or not. If he had any choice, he would have never set foot outside Kiri without permission.

But as it is, he didn't have a choice. Kisame hadn't eaten in almost three days and was becoming desperate. The market had been fuller of shinobi more than ever, since a dumb group of three boys tried to raid it last week. Needless to say, the security had been higher and not even the sneakiest of kids could steal the smallest of breads. Kisame hadn't had the courage to eat from the trash bins. Ah, if it meant survival, than sure, he would do what he had to do. But honestly speaking, the _things_ rotting in there looked more likely to kill him than starvation would.

Thus, he used an old secret tunnel he found out when he was four in an abandoned compound of a long dead clan to go outside with a fishing rod he stole six months ago. Kisame had never fished in his life, but he figured that with old men could do it, than he, a six years old boy in his prime, could do it. Regardless of the fact that he had never before seen anyone fishing in his life.

He was Kisame Hoshigaki, damnit! The (in)famous thief of dried persimmon, the Kiri delicacy that had given him his name! He could do anything!

Anything but fish, apparently.

"Gah!" he shouted, spitting water out of his mouth, along with some other curse words that would have made an old lady scowl. Forsaking any desires of secrecy in favor of bellowing his frustration to the heavens above, he screamed. "How the fuck does this damn thing works?!"

He had tried everything! First, he had thrown the tip of the fishing rod straight in the face of a small-sized fish, hitting it right in the middle of its eyes. But instead of dying like it was supposed to, his dinner had only swum away, not before giving him the Evil Eye.

It was then and there that Kisame realized the lack of food was beginning to affect his brain more than he had thought.

His second try was to launch the thing in the middle of the river, hopping that some fish would be retarded enough to kill itself with the tip. Choke in it, maybe. But after thirty seconds of nothing, Kisame gave up, thinking himself stupid for even giving it a try in the first place.

Then he had tried flapping the rod in the water like a lunatic, thinking that maybe it would hit a fish and send it flying outside the water and into his eager blue hands.

Ah, the rod hit something, alright. Only, it wasn't the fish he had been expecting.

A _rock_ hit him in the middle of the forehead, sending him toppling backwards into the water with a purple pebble-shaped bruise.

Now Kisame was a hungry, wet, bruising and vengeful six years old boy swearing up a storm that would have made sailors whistle in admiration.

"When I find that rod I'm gonna break it into tiny little pieces..." while Kisame was plotting his revenge against a inanimate object, said fishing rod had soared across the sky, going up river and hitting someone in the back, sending her stumbling forwards in the deep dark water.

The scream was loud and near enough to make Kisame worry. Had he hit someone…?

**.**

**.**

**Dark. Dark everywhere. And then… Light.**

"_Moooommmmm, can I go to Bonnie's house tomorrow? Please? Pretty please?" an almost fifteen years old girl whined from the backseat of the car._

_She was pretty little thing, with straight brown hair and brown eyes, tan skin, a heart-shaped face with thin eyebrows, a button nose and full rosy lips, with some speckles on her cheeks. Not someone stunning, but beautiful in her own way. Especially when she was pouting like that._

**What… What is this…?**

_In front of the young teenager, two adults sat in the front seats. Both were in their late forties or early fifties, but the only sight of aging was the occasional silver hair. The one driving, a woman with dark blond hair and blue eyes, smiled at her daughter without taking her eyes off the road._

**Who are they?**

"_I don't know. Didn't you promise to help your father carve some wood tomorrow?"_

_The girl pouted even more. "But we carve every day. Dad and I can do it some other time. Bonnie has just came back from vacation and she said she had a gift for me!"_

_A man with brown hair and kind honey-brown eyes laughed heartily at that. "What, do you want to go to Bonnie's house only to receive a present, sweetie?"_

_The fourteen years old scowled at the grinning man. "Of course not. Don't be ridiculous, dad."_

**Dad? Father? He is not her father… is he?**

"_I'm only messing with you, cupcake. We can do it another day of course. I know how much you've missed your best friend. You've been mopping around the house since Miss Summers left for Brazil two months ago."_

"_I didn't mop! Mom, tell him I didn't mop!" the girl pleaded._

"_Oh, you did," the blond haired woman said. "You haven't cracked a joke since Bonnie left."_

_The teenager crossed her arms in a sullen silence, making the adults with her laugh._

**Mom? She has a mother? No… she doesn't… she only has…**

"_So, what did you think of the visit to old grandpa Ben?" her father asked._

_The girl scrunched up her nose. "He's weird."_

"_Elyse Martin!"_

**Elyse? That's the girl's name? **_**Her**_** name…? No. **_**No**_**. Her name is Kurai. Kurai.**

"_What! It's true." She defended herself. "You have to admit mom. Grandpa Ben has been looking at me like I'm going to vanish from the face of the earth the moment he turns his back! He has been looking at me like that since I was three years old."_

"_She is right darling. Your father has… some rather unique quirks." The brown haired man tried to say diplomatically._

"_Father is getting old," the woman replied with a voice that booked no arguments. "He only needs some time to himself. He will get back to normal soon enough."_

"_Still, he seemed petty insistent for us to spend the night in the farm, didn't he?" the girl mused aloud. "Wouldn't stop inventing excuses to keep us in the house. My favorite was the 'The sky is falling out there!'"_

"_Well, he was right about that one, at least. It really looks like the sky is falling." The father said, eyeing the furious storm outside the car with slight concerned eyes. "And is that mist?"_

"_It's just a little storm." The mother said dismissively. "Stop worrying yourself about it. It will pass soon enough"_

**But it didn't. It never did.**

"_Sweetheart, I think we should go back now. Your father will probably be very happy to have us over."_

"_I think dad's right, mom. I want a bed and don't really care where it is, as long as I can lay on it." Elyse said tiredly, fighting to keep her eyes open and only succeeding in it half-way. It was way past midnight and everyone in the car was ready to sleep._

"_Maybe you're right. I might have taken the wrong turn back there. We should have been half-way into the bridge by now" It was the first time both the other occupants in the car could detect the tinge of worry in the woman's voice._

_The car was only turning back when the man exclaimed "Wait! There is the bridge!"_

_Indeed, there it was. The bridge that would take them home. The family let out a collective relieved breath._

**No. Nononononono. Don't. Go back. Stop. **_**Stop**_**.**

"_I can't see anything in this weather. What about you John?"_

"_Just kept going at the pace we are Ellie. The bridge doesn't have any turns and we are going slow enough to see if someone is coming."_

_But they never saw the drunk driver, or the truck he was driving. Until it crashed on them._

**Stop. Don't make me watch it. I don't want to see it.** _**I don't want to see it.**_

"_Elyse!"_

"_Mother! Father!"_

_**I don't want to see my death.**_

_The car went flying out of the bridge by the force of the impact, sinking in the black water in the middle of a storm. Two people survived. One didn't._

**My name is Elyse Johanna Martin. I am fourteen years old and my parents are John and Elizabeth Martin. I have a best friend named Bonnie Summers and my dream is to study to be an architect when I'm done with school. My maternal grandfather, Benjamin Towers, lives in a farm that he constantly uses to invite us over. To get to the farm, we have to cross a river. **

**My name is Elyse.**

**I drowned in a river while driving back home with my family.**

**I died in the middle of a storm and darkness, feeling my heart stop beating in the bottom of a river.**

**My name is Kurai.**

**I am terrified of water.**

**I was born in the middle of a storm and have memories of a life that isn't mine own.**

**Who am I?**

**.**

**.**

**AN: Yeah, I didn't really like how it ended, but I had to end there or this chapter would have more than 8000 words and I want to sleep. Don't forget to review.**


	3. Chapter 3 - Coming Winter Part 2

**AN: Chapter 3, guys. I think I will post the next one before the week's over.**

**Now, before reading this, if you are the guest that goes by the name of Brine that sent me a review about the last chapter, I want to tell you this: THANK YOU SO MUCH! Seriously, **_**thank you**_** for reviewing my story. I went back to chapter 2 and realized that you were right, there really are many mistakes in there that, honestly? Made me cringe. I am hoping that I will be able to go back there and fix it sooner rather than later. Preferably, before the week's over, but I might not managed it (real life and all of that…). As for the part where you say that you don't like self-inserts as a rule, to that I can only say this: after this chapter and a small part of the next one, Kurai's past life will rarely, if ever again, be mentioned. You have to understand, that my objective in making Kurai as a 'self-insert' (and really, after reading this chapter, I'm not even sure if she can be considered that) was that she would feel, how can I put it… different...? from everyone else. She was the odd one out, the girl that felt and thought about things that she never experienced in this life. She mourned for family and friends she had never seen before and longed for being in another world that, to her knowledge, existed only in her head. **_**She thought she was crazy **_**(I think I didn't put enough emphasis on that). Time passed, the world and its people moved on, but she got stuck in her own mind, trying to figure out **_**who**_** she was and what feelings and thoughts were her own. She felt disconnect of her own world and life because a part of her knew that she didn't belong there. I wanted her to feel this, to feel so lonely and confused, that when Yagura appeared, she would latch on him with all her strength. He was the first one to recognize her as her own person, the only one to give her some sort of identity when she didn't even had a name. Because of that, she became so loyal to him that she wouldn't hesitate to stab herself if Yagura ordered her to. Kurai will **_**never**_** love anyone more than she does her father. And is that undying love, that unwavering loyalty and utter devotion that will play a major role in this story, and I just wanted you guys to understand that. I suppose I **_**could**_** have gone another way about it that didn't include reincarnation, but at the time I was writing this story I didn't know any other way to do it. Having said that, I hope you will consider keep reading this story, at least until chapter 5. Of course, I won't hold it against you if you choose not to, but I can honestly say that I will miss your reviews. **

**With that over, here goes…**

**Dark Waters **

**Chapter 3 - Coming Winter Part 2**

**.**

**.**

Kurai was floating in the darkness. She could feel the water around her and for the first time in her life, she did not shy away. She did not struggle or felt terror. She only felt…

Peace. So much peace.

She felt as if she could stay this way forever. It was so good.

But…

There was something wrong. She was forgetting something…

_You could just stay here, you know._

What? Who was it?

_I am me. But I am you too._

'How can you be me if you are someone else? This doesn't even make sense.' Kurai thought.

_I am a part of you. The part that stayed locked in the back of your mind since you were born, the part that sent you memories and dreams not your own._

'Don't you have a name?' she asked.

_I am Elyse._

**Elyse.**

**And then there was light in the darkness.**

Kurai opened her eyes to see that she wasn't floating anymore. Instead of drifting away in the dark water like before, she stood in the middle of what seemed to be a hospital room, complete with a white ceiling, white walls, white everything.

It was so much white after being in the darkness for some time that she almost felt blinded.

When her eyes adjusted themselves to the change, she saw that there was a bed in the room, with someone laying on it. She wondered briefly if it was worth the risk to get nearer and see who it was, when the door opened and a couple walked through it. Immediately, Kurai froze, but the couple didn't even glance her way, instead going straight to the bed. It was almost like she was invisible to them.

"_That's because you are."_

Kurai whipped around to see who it was that had spoken. There, near the only window in the room, a ghostly figure was slumped against the wall. She (because it was definitely female) was young, fourteen or fifteen, with straight brown hair and deep brown eyes. Her eyes were the most solid thing of her; the rest of her body was so pale that she could actually see the wall behind the teenager.

Was she a ghost?

"_You could call me that."_

"Who are you?" Kurai asked suspiciously.

The girl sighed. _"Again? I already told you multiple times. I am you. I am Elyse."_

"But my name isn't Elyse and you look nothing like me." She pointed out.

"_That's not a problem."_ Elyse said and, beyond Kurai's incredulous eyes, the teenager shrunk until she was her size and her brown hair darkened and became curly like hers. Soon, Kurai was looking at herself, the only thing that remained unchanged being Elyse's eyes. They continued the same deep brown, unlike Kurai's own pink orbs. However, everything else was the same, like she was staring at a mirror.

"How-"

"_That's not important."_ Elyse cut her off. _"What is important is to decide what we are going to do now that we are here."_

"And where is here?" Kurai asked bewildered.

"_This is my world. Our world, the one we are originally from before our soul got reincarnated in another universe."_

The young four years old frowned. "I don't understand."

"_After the car accident, our soul got separated from our body, but we did not vanished like we were supposed to,"_ Elyse explained. _"Instead, to survive, our spirit latched itself to the closest human body still without a soul it could find, apart from our own, of course."_ She then pointed at herself, while spinning around without moving out from her spot. _"This body, that wasn't even out of the womb then."_

"But then… If we have a new body, this body, why are we here in this world?"

"_I thought it was obvious."_ Elyse said. _"We are here, because it's time."_

Kurai suddenly had a very bad feeling about this. "Time for what?"

Elyse Martin frowned at her. _"To go back, of course. It's time to wake up."_

_**Ba-dump.**_

**.**

**.**

Kisame was **not** freaking out. He was just… concerned. A little bit worried. But definitely not freaking out.

"Hey, gaki…? Come on kid, open your eyes." The blue-skinned boy pleaded to the unconscious dripping wet form lying next to him in the ground. "Come on! You can't be dead! The rod couldn't kill a damn fish, it certainly can't kill you." But no matter how much he shaked the toddler (because the kid couldn't be older than three, there was simply no way), he received no response. At first he had heard some noise coming from the kid's mouth and even a whimper or two when Kisame had dragged both of them out of the water, but now there was only silence. Damn it! He hadn't meant to hit the gaki! It was all the rod's fault!

He had went to see who he had accidentally hit with the fishing rod, already thinking up excuses to explain what he was doing outside the village, when he realized that there was no one near the place he had heard the scream come from. He had picked up the offending rod and was ready to get the hell out of there before someone decided to come investigate the source of the noise, when Kisame had seen the figure struggling in the water. He had started with growing horror at the young kid's fruitless attempts to swim back to the riverbank and soon realized that the gaki wouldn't make it. It didn't take a genius to realize what needed to be done.

So without a second thought, Kisame jumped in the river and saved his unfortunate accidental victim.

"Please squirt. Don't do this to me. I didn't jump in that river just to drag out a corpse."

Still nothing. The gaki already looked dead. Carefully, Kisame put his hand over the child's nose and panicked (he did _not_) when he felt no breath. What was he supposed to do now?!

Kisame wanted to curse himself. For trying to use the fishing rod, for getting the idea to fish in the first place, for ever getting out of the village. He wanted to curse the kid for not knowing how to swim (and really, who _didn't_ know how to swim? They lived in a freaking island!) and still be near a river anyway.

But there was no time. He needed to do something, and fast.

He frowned at the kid that he might have potentially killed. Well, it seemed that he was going to have to improvise. Good thing he was good at improvising.

Gulping and grimacing to himself, Kisame lowered his head and closed his eyes. Best no to see it.

This was definitely not how he expected his first kiss to go.

Someone up there clearly hated him.

**.**

**.**

Kurai could feel her heart beating frantically in her chest. "What do you mean by waking up?"

Now Elyse seemed annoyed. _"Exactly what I said. It took four years in that world for our soul to regain enough strength to leave this body while dreaming. I don't even want to think about how much longer it would have taken if Yagura hadn't told you to practice meditation. It turned out that that helped quite a lot and I managed to send more dreams to your mindscape."_

Kurai's eyes narrowed. "So you were the one responsible for my nightmares."

Elyse shrugged, totally unconcerned about the mental stress she had put the younger girl through._ "I did what had to be done," _then she brightened considerably._ "But now that you are here, we won't have to suffer from the nightmares anymore. We can go home now."_

She had said that so brightly, with so much genuine joy in her tone, brown eyes dancing with eagerness, that for a moment, Kurai felt happy too. Just for a moment thought.

"I don't want to."

Everything seemed to freeze at her words. Elyse's smile slipped as fast as it had appeared and she simply stared at Kurai blankly.

"_What"_ was the teenager's flat answer.

"This world… is not my home. Kirigakure is my home. There was where I was born, where I lived and grew up in. That place is home, and is where I am going to return to."

"_Don't be ridiculous_." Elyse spat. _"The Bloody Mist is not home. It's a hellhole that we will be more than happy to leave behind. The time we spent there was a necessary sacrifice, but now that time is over and we can finally go back to the real world. Our world."_

"Your world, not mine. Never mine." Kurai replied hotly.

"_**Our world**__, you stupid girl. When will you accept the fact that we are one and the same?"_

"When will you accept the fact that you are dead?"

Elyse froze in her tracks for a second before she recoiled back in shock like someone had hit her, brown eyes wide in surprise and shock. Seeing her chance, Kurai leaped into it.

"You are dead, aren't you? But you were so afraid of dying that you had to steal the body of another human being, living like a parasite for four years, all the while planning how to go back to a life that doesn't exist anymore."

"_Stop."_

She didn't. "Well, I have news for you, Elyse. I am not going back. This might have been my life once, but it's over. It's over and done with. I have a new one now, and I sure as hell will live it to the fullest."

"_You can't. I have to go back. __**We**__ have to go back."_ The teenager whispered frantically, biting her tongue in her nervousness.

"There is nothing to go back to, Elyse." Kurai said it more gently, hoping to calm down the tearful girl.

"_How can you know it?!"_ the young girl using her face spat suddenly, brown eyes burning with its intensiveness. _"You haven't even looked yet!"_

"What is there to look?" the four years old asked, confused.

Elyse smirked and simply pointed at the bed. Kurai had been so focused on their conversation that she had forgotten about the other occupants in the room. Turning, she saw that the couple was still there, quietly whispering words she couldn't even begin to understand to each other and to the figure laying on the hospital bed.

Apprehensiveness gripped her heart. She didn't want to see who was laid in that bed.

"_Well, what are you waiting for?"_ Elyse asked mockingly behind her. _"Go see."_

Steeling herself, the four years old walked until she was right next to the bed, still not looking at the person sleeping in it. Why was she so scared of seeing a sick person? Her Otou-sama would be disappointed at her weakness.

With that thought fuelling her resolve, Kurai turned her back and stared.

And stared some more.

No. This is wrong. This is so, so wrong.

A whimper. "No"

A hand came down on her shoulder. _"We never died. We just got… disconnected with our body. But it never stopped working. Our heart never stopped beating. We are __**alive**__, Kurai. And we can wake up now. We can take our life back. Our real life, not the fantasy it has been until now."_

Kurai was staring at herself. And still, it wasn't _her_. It was Elyse Martin, now eighteen years old, laying in that hospital bed, pale and breakable. So fragile, she looked. Like she had never ventured outside those hospital walls.

And she didn't. Not for the past four years at least.

The four years she, Kurai, had been alive. Oh Kami. It was true.

"_All you have to do is touch her. Me. Us. Touch us, our body, and everything will come back to normal again. We can be whole again. We don't belong in that place, full of cold-blooded murderers and backstabbing liars. No more nightmares, no more irrational fear of water, no more pain and solitude. We can have everything we love back. All you have to do is touch us. Choose me."_

Kurai stopped. There was something wrong in that phrase. "'Choose me'? Don't you mean us?"

Elyse stared at her uncomprehending for a few seconds before realization dawned on her. _"Us. Of course, I said us. We are one and the same."_

"No." Kurai looked at her, suspicions growing by the second. "You said 'me'. 'Choose me'. What will happen if I do that? What happens if I touch your body?"

"_We merge," _was the carefully neutral response.

"But how does that works?" she insisted. "What will happen to me?"

Elyse glared at her, resentfully. _"You weren't supposed to exist. This body wasn't supposed to live for as long as it did. It was supposed to die a few days after being born, the mind and soul in it never having the chance to grow coherent thoughts, a personality. __**You weren't supposed to exist**__."_

Kurai stared at the teenager in horror. "What are you saying?"

"_My soul found your body before it could die. I entered it, took it as my own, gave it the necessary strength to survive past it's time. But I calculated the timing wrong. The soul already in it stayed instead of leaving it, and since it was the main one, __**you**__ were the one to be in control, while I was locked away deep into your subconscious."_

So that meant that they were never the one entity. Kurai was right when she had called Elyse a parasite. The girl had bloody_ invaded_ her body. All that talk about being one and the same… was just that; talk to get Kurai's guard down, to deceive her into a false sense of security. Horror couldn't even begin to describe what she was feeling right now. "So, if we merge…"

The Martin girl didn't even sound sorry for lying to her all this time. _"We will go to my body, where the main soul in it will be me. You will get… absorbed, for lack of a better term, into my memories, like the character of a book a read about, or a dream I once had."_

The meaning was clear for both of them_. You will die._

For Kurai, it was obvious what had to be done. She had come way too far to simply give it up now.

"What if I refuse to be, as you put it, to be absorbed into your body? What will you do then?"

"_You can't refuse. It's my life. My life!" _Elyse shouted with a mad glint in her eyes.

"I have a life too! Am I supposed to simply give it up so you can return to yours?"

"_You would have never lived past the week if it wasn't for me! If anything, you should be grateful for the time you had. The time I gave to you!"_

"And now you want me to die," Kurai concluded.

"_You weren't supposed to live in the first place." _The teenager replied sullenly.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You already told me that enough times." She waved her hand in emphasis, annoyed by the girl's repetitiveness.

"_No. You don't understand. You weren't supposed to exist. You being there is screwing up the story."_

"What are you talking about now?" Story? What story?

"_Naruto."_

Now Kurai was becoming even more confused. "What is a 'Naruto'? You mean the food?"

"_The main character of the world we landed in. If you continue living, you might change the entire plot irreversibly. I can't let that happen. But more than that, I want to live."_

Kurai lost what little remained of her patience and yelled "You had your chance! Now let me have mine!"

"_You don't deserve it!" _Elyse screamed, eyes mad. The illusion broke then, and the teenager went back to her normal form as a fourteen years old. A fourteen years old that was advancing on Kurai with the intent to kill, if her face was anything to go by.

Elyse lunged for her, but Kurai leaped out of the way, the intensive training her father had drilled into her finally kicking in. She knew what she had to do.

Rolling out of the older girl's grabbing range, Kurai tried to summon her chakra and was incredibly relieved when she could feel it humming under her skin, a comforting presence that helped her stay in focus.

She avoided a clumsy punch aimed at her head and reflected the other one coming for her stomach. It struck Kurai then, how laughably easy it was, how effortless, fighting against Elyse was. She wondered, briefly, if that was how her father felt every time they sparred together. This certainty that no matter how hard your opponent tried, how much you were distracted during the fight, they would never be able to land a single hit.

It was rather euphoric, to say the least.

But there was no time for kidding around. She was fighting for her life, after all. Avoiding one more kick, Kurai flicked back and formed the necessary handseal. Then she yelled, "KAI!"

This was **her body**, **her mind**. She controlled it and not someone else. If she wanted to wake up, then she sure as hell was going to open her eyes and wake up.

The world around them shattered, like thousands of glass pieces falling from the dark sky and being swept by the ocean's tide.

**.**

She was floating in the darkness again. But this time she was more aware. She could feel something solid under her bare feet and feel the by-now-familiar thick mist around her, comforting and hiding her from prying eyes. Elyse's eyes.

"_He will die, you know."_

Unfortunately, the mist couldn't block her voice too. "What?"

"_Yagura, the Yondaime Mizukage. You're precious Otou-sama. He will die, and nothing you do will change that fact."_

Kurai curled around herself, trying to fight off the seeping cold. "I don't believe you. You're a liar."

"_Not this time. This time, I am right. You will watch him die and know deep down, that the pain you, we, will feel was your own fault. If you had listened to me…"_

"Even if what you're saying is true… It won't happen. I won't let it happen. I will become powerful. I will be the strongest shinobi of Kirigakure, of the entire world if I have to. Strong enough to protect Otou-sama from all his enemies."

"_You? Powerful enough to fight against __**him**__?" _Elyse asked mockingly, with a hint of incredulity in her tone that told Kurai she thought her a fool just for thinking for a second that she could succeed_. "Don't make me laugh. I know you, Ku-ra-i. I know your fears and your weaknesses because they are my own. And believe me when I tell you, you will fail."_

Kurai clenched her fists. "Maybe you're right, maybe I might fail defeating my father's enemies. But if I do, then I will die as myself, and not like some girl who was too weak to accept death."

"_You fear death as well."_

"I feared death because of you. But I am not you, Elyse Martin. Not anymore. If I die today, or tomorrow, or from many years from now… As long as I have served my purpose as Otou-sama's weapon, I will go to the Shinigami willing. I am not weak."

"_You can't make this choice."_

"I can, because as you said, this is my body now. It has always been my body and I govern it."

"_I gave you life!"_

"And for that I am grateful, but not nearly grateful enough to give it back to you. I don't need you anymore Elyse Martin, and I order you to go away!"

"_NO!"_

Silence.

And then, **light**.


	4. Chapter4 The SharkBoy and the SpringGirl

**AN: Another chapter guys! Especial thanks to Zerojackson for helping me work out through my little writer's block mid-way into the chapter.**

**Dark Waters**

**Chapter 4 – The Shark Boy and the Spring Girl**

**.**

**.**

When Kurai opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was a shark trying to kiss her.

Wait… what?

Her eyes widened and she screamed like the little girl she was. At the sudden noise, the shark-boy (was his skin really _blue_?!) snapped his own eyes open, displaying small dark pools that stared at her in clear surprise before he himself screamed and fell on his back trying to get away from her.

Meanwhile, Kurai had gone on all fours, dropping any pretense of gracefulness and decorum her father had tried to teach her in order to get as far away from the two-legged shark as her legs could possibly take her.

Unfortunately, her legs couldn't take her much farther, which made Kurai wonder for just how long she had been unconscious for. Judging by the burning in her lungs and the headache making her dizzy in pain, it was a rather long time.

"Wh-wha- You're alive!" came the shout behind her.

Kurai turned her head sideways, glaring at the blue finger pointing at her. "Of course I'm alive! Why wouldn't I be?!"

"You weren't breathing before! I thought you were dead!"

"And because of that you thought you could kiss me?!"

An affronted look crossed the boy's face. "I wasn't trying to kiss you!"

"Then what the hell were you trying to do?!"

"I was going to give you CPR! Besides, I don't swing that way!"

"Huh? You don't like girls?" she asked confusedly. Wasn't he a bit young to have a preference?

"I don't like BOYS!"

Kurai raised her eyebrows expectantly. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Shark-boy looked at her confusedly. "You ARE a boy, are you not?"

Wait. Did he just say…?

WHAT?!

Kurai couldn't help it. It was just too much. She exploded. "YOU IDIOT! I'M A GIRL, A GIRL!"

The volume of her shout was enough to make the blue-skinned boy yelp and jump backwards in his hast to get away from her. "Yeep!"

"ARE YOU BLIND?! CAN'T YOU SEE THAT I AM NOT A BOY?!" Kurai followed her crawling and clueless victim, flames in her eyes and a dark and red aura around her that sent shivers down the boy's spine.

"Wha-what?" he stammered from the rocky ground. "Y-you're a g-girl? A-are you sure…?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WITH THAT? OF COURSE I AM SURE!"

"But I always thought that girls have… ya know…" he trailed off, uncertainty clouding his features.

"_What?_" she hissed through clenched teeth.

"… Pillows? I heard some of the men in the bar talking about them, they called it… Melons? Bobs…? Boobs! Yeah, boobs! Shouldn't a girl have boobs?"

The flames around Kurai withered and died away in the wake of her shock, leaving her to stare at him incredulously. "… You haven't been around the fairer sex much, have you?"

"Nope!" he chirped happily, sitting in the ground now that the Flames from Hell had gone away. Kurai noted, annoyed, that even while he was sitting, the boy was still taller than her. That just wasn't playing fair.

Kurai sighed. "Alright, I will give you a free crash course on the feminine world. These," she pointed at her bare chest. "are not called 'pillows', 'melons' or 'boobs'. The correct term is 'breasts'. Every girl has them, and as their body evolves through puberty, the breasts also change. In time, my breasts will grow to a decent and respectful size that matches the ones of an adult woman the men you overheard in the bar were talking about."

The shark-boy stared unabashedly at her flat chest. Then he opened his mouth. Kurai should have known that nothing remotely intelligent would come out of it.

"They are a looong way from being considered a 'decent and respectful size', aren't they?"

It took everything and a little more of her non-existent self-control not to punch him in the face. She managed it, by the skin of her teeth. Otou-sama would be so proud.

"You know what? I'm done with this. With you. I knew I should have stayed in bed while I had had the chance," with that, Kurai turned around, gathering her clothes in the way, and began to walk towards the village's gate.

"Hey! Wait, squirt!"

A thick mark appeared in her brow. "Don't call me that!" she snapped behind her.

The boy continued following her regardless of her protests. "So, what is your name, squirt?"

"Stop calling me that!"

The boy grinned at her, displaying slightly sharp teeth that unconsciously made her mind flash back to the Sandaime, and the way he would smile at her, with an almost predatory expression on his face. She took a step away.

Her unwanted companion must have noticed the movement, for he scowled deeply at her. "I was asking your name for a reason squirt. Or should I start calling you scaredy-cat? It may fit better, don't you think?"

He smiled at her again, but this time it had lost its previous warmth and friendliness. Had she hurt his feelings when she stepped away from him? It was possible. The boy couldn't have many friends, if any at all, looking the way he did. She wouldn't be surprised if she had been the first child younger and smaller than him to dare shout at him.

Puffing out her now clothed chest, Kurai looked at him in the eye with what she knew was a brave and prideful expression on her face. "My name is neither squirt nor scaredy-cat. I am Kurai, daughter of Yagura, and someday I will be one of the strongest shinobi of Kirigakure."

…

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" the blue haired boy exploded in laughter, desperately clutching at his stomach, with tears trailing down from his black eyes. When it proved too much effort to stay standing, he collapsed once more in the ground, rolling around trying in vain to stop his hysterical laughter.

Kurai stared at him. Then she turned around, picked up a rather large-sized pebble and threw it at the boy's head. His laugh stopped immediately and gave room to a pained groan.

"Why did you _do_ that?!" he exclaimed, gently massaging the side of his head where the pebble had hit him.

"If you have to ask, I should just do it again." Said Kurai, another small rock innocently laying in the palm of her hand.

The Shark-boy glowered darkly at her, his big blue arms already blocking any attempts from her at hitting his head.

Satisfied that her threat had been received and understood, she let the rock drop harmlessly to the ground. "As I said, my name is Kurai. What about you?"

Still warily eyeing her hands for any sight they might chuck anything else at him, the blue boy replied. "Kisame."

_What a fitting name. Demon shark, indeed._

"Well, Kisame-san. Am I right to assume that I own my life to you?"

"Err… Yeah?"

She stared at him flatly. "Did you, or did you not, rescue me from the river?"

He better have, for if Kurai discovered that he had just stayed apart instead of trying to save her, the next border patrol would discover a drowned shark in this river.

"Yeah, yeah. I did. It's not like I could have just left you to die, right?" the Kisame boy asked her with a great dose of annoyance in his voice.

_He could have_, Kurai thinks to herself, in a sudden realization. He could have just walked by without even sparing a disinterested glance in her direction, continued with his life, uninterrupted and unchanged. She would have drowned if he hadn't dragged her out. He was even trying to give her CPR when he thought she was going to die.

She would have, if it wasn't for him. _He had saved her life._

And she had gone all 'demon from hell' over him with that entire 'gender-confused' situation. She had even offended him, unintended, of course, but still. Now Kurai felt guilty. It wasn't an emotion she had felt before and she swiftly decided she didn't like it one bit.

So, time to make emends.

"Look…" Kurai hesitated, uncertainty holding her tongue. What was she supposed to say in a situation like this? "I'm… sorry if I have offended you in any way. It wasn't my intention. I'm just… tired."

Instantly, Kisame was back on her face. "It's alright squirt. I forgive you!"

The hell?! One minute he was depressed and angry and the next he's smiling brighter than the freaking sun?! Was he bipolar or something?

Putting her hands firmly on his chest (because, to her eternal annoyance, she couldn't reach his shoulders even on her tiptoes), she pushed him away from her. Just because she had decided to apologize and be nice, did not mean she had to have him invading her personal bubble.

Kisame didn't even budge. It was like he hadn't even felt her push at all.

Frowning to herself, Kurai directed a little of her chakra to her hands, just like her Otou-sama had demonstrated, and this time, when she pushed Kisame, he moved.

He also seemed rather surprised that she managed to make him move at all, if his wide eyes were any indication.

"How did you _do_ that?" he asked, amazed.

"What?" Kurai repeated. "You mean push you? Because I just had to use my h-"

Kisame shook his head, cutting her off. "Not that! I meant how you, a three years old toddler, have the necessary strength to push me! Boys four years old didn't manage it!"

… He thought she was three years old?...

More importantly, he could take on boys' years older than him in a fight?

Now that was more interesting.

She considered him through narrowed pink eyes, before announcing with a careful voice. "I think, Kisame-san, that I know the perfect way to repay you by helping me back there in the river. Tell me, have you ever heard of chakra before?"

**.**

"Am I doing it right?"

"You aren't if you keep stopping your meditation to ask me that," came the exasperated reply.

A huff. "This is boring."

"This is training. Now go back to it."

"For you is easy to say. You're doing the most cool stuff."

"You will be doing it too, as soon as you master this exercise first. And we don't say 'the most cool', the correct term is 'the coolest'." She absent-mindedly corrected his grammar, while running up and down from the tree.

They were still outside, a little ways from the river Kurai had almost drowned in, but far enough from the village's gates not to be noticed by the guards posted on the walls. She had just introduced Kisame to the wonders of chakra. After being certain that the six years old boy had completely understood the concept behind it, she had helped him make his first connection with his own chakra. It took some minutes, because, as Kurai was quick to discover, Kisame was definitely not the type to sit still for more than one minute, if even that. Eventually, she finally convinced him to stay still long enough for him to grasp his chakra, and Kurai wondered with the same expression of absolute awe in Kisame's face was on her own when her father taught it to her the first time around. Somehow, she doubted it.

Currently, Kisame was struggling to make one small pebble stick to his forehead using only his chakra, while Kurai, that had already mastered that exercise some time ago, was training her tree-walking. Had she been a better person, perhaps she would have given him some pointers and clues. She knew from experience how absolutely frustrating that exercise was, but as she was _not_ a better person, Kurai left the shark boy figure it out on his own, like her father had done to her. And truth be told, she was getting quite the kick out of seeing someone else struggle with his own chakra. Call it sadism or whatever; she was enjoying herself too much to care.

"I did it!" the triumphant cry broke her out from her concentration and she would have fallen from the tree had she not grasped at one of the branches to stop herself from falling. Swinging her body down from the tree in an almost graceful fashion that spoke of many hours of intense training, Kurai glared at the pebble sticking to Kisame's forehead like it had been super-glued on it, willing it to fall with the intenseness of her gaze. After a few seconds of constant staring, Kisame finally snapped.

"Are you done staring?"

She looked at him, expressionless. "Hai."

Then she gave her back to him, intent to return to her own exercise. Of course, it wasn't mean to be, as Kisame followed hurriedly after.

"What do I do now?" he asked eagerly, pebble still sticking to his forehead.

Kurai merely pointed at the farthest tree away from her own and shooed him like one would a particularly irritating pet. "Go climb on that."

The boy scratched behind his head, mussing up his spiky dark blue hair that was almost crying for a brush. "Why so far away?" then an evil glint appeared on his shark-like eyes. "Are you trying to get rid of me, Sukoshi?"

Kurai stopped mid-step, one foot still hanging on the air and a thick mark making another appearance on her brow. What was with that boy and his incessant nicknames for her? She was short, alright. Must he rub it in her face every few sentences?!

"Don't call me that" she said as calmly as she possibly could.

"Ah, I don't think so, Sukoshi. If you are so hell bent on trying to get as far away from me as you can, than is only fair that I get to call whatever I like."

She couldn't beat his logic. Fortunately for her, she could beat _him_.

Charging chakra to her hands for the second time that day, Kurai swung a fist at Kisame's head. It was through pure instinct and sheer dumb luck that he managed to avoid the surprise punch that would have knocked him out for a few minutes at least. To Kurai's surprise however, Kisame didn't seem angry that she had tried to take his head off in a fit of rage. In fact, the boy almost seemed… Excited.

Her assessment was proven right when she heard Kisame's loud laugher fill the quietness of the forest around them. He was _enjoying_ this. He _liked_ fighting her.

But why?

Soon, they had fallen on a pattern. Kurai would strike at him for some time and he would do his best to evade her blows, only succeeding a quarter of the time, and when Kurai showed sights of boredom, Kisame would make another insulting remark about her height, or lack thereof, and she would be charging at him again in a matter of seconds with all the indignant fury her four year old body could handle.

And on and on it went, with the two trading blows and insults, with Kisame in the end of one and Kurai suffering from the other, until the forest grew dark and cold and they laid sprawled on the ground, gasping for breath and (in Kisame's case) nursing painful bruises.

"That," Kisame gasped out. "was the best fight of my life." Then he laughed, long and hard, and it was so contagious that Kurai found herself laughing too.

Why _wouldn't_ she laugh? She had almost died early today but survived with the help of a shark boy and had finally confronted her fear, like her father told her to. She had managed to find the cause behind it and beat it. She didn't fear drowning anymore, or at least not more than she would fear being stabbed to the death. Kurai was free of Elyse! No more nightmares, no more fear, no more _weakness_. She could go back home and show her father what she managed to accomplish in one day and maybe, just _maybe_, he would be proud of her.

And of course, seeing Kisame's skin painted all the colors of the rainbow helped too. The sight was just way too funny not to giggle. Who knew that so many shades of purple, black, red, green and yellow existed?

"You should see how my Otou-sama spars. Then you will have the best fight of your life." She told him, far too drunk in her happiness to notice or care that she and Kisame were almost touching, such was their closeness.

Kisame slowly turned his head to stare at her, mindful of his injuries. "Yeah, I remember you told me his name was Yagura? Is he a shinobi?"

Kurai nodded her head. "The strongest in the village."

The boy raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "Heh? But I thought that the strongest shinobi in our village is the Mizukage. Are you the Sandaime's long lost daughter that no one knew about, by any chance, Sukoshi?"

That damned nickname. She scowled at him, previous good mood forgotten. "Of course I'm not _his_ daughter." The mere idea of sharing a blood relation with Kaguya Hiyasu made her skin crawl in a completely unpleasant way. She was going to have nightmares about this now, she just knew it. And she had just rid herself from the old ones too… It was all Kisame's fault. "But I know my Otou-sama. He will be Mizukage one day."

She said that with the unshakable belief and complete trust only a child can have for their parent, but that made her words no less true. She knew that, if her Father so wished, he would become Mizukage, even if he had to take the Hat from Hiyasu's cold dead hands. Kurai also knew that maybe her Father would even prefer it that way. There was some kind of story between Yagura and Hiyasu, and it wasn't a fairytale where dreams come true. Rather, it was probably more of a bloody horror story.

Kisame continued to stare at her face for a few more seconds before turning his gaze to the sky above. That night, the sky was surprisingly clear, free of the usual storm clouds that would cover the entire island with its grayness. They could even see the stars twinkling merrily down at them, like they held untold secrets about times of Old and lands long forgotten by humans.

"You seem to trust you dad very much." Kisame finally spoke, breaking the brief silence that had fallen over them as they watched the sky together.

"With my life," was Kurai's prompt reply, with no hesitation or doubt in her voice.

"What about your mom?"

Kurai shrugged, a little unconcerned. "I never met her. I don't think she's even alive anymore. Otou-sama never speaks of her."

"Well then, if you have no mother, how is it, having a father?"

The question took the young girl by surprise and she wrenched her eyes away from the stars to stare at the boy lying down next to her. But Kisame was still watching the sky intently, as if it was holding the answer to all of his questions.

"It's… hard to explain." She said pathetically.

Kisame's jaw unclenched in what might have been disappointment. The four years old girl felt rather disappointed with herself as well. So she tried again.

"Having a father… is like having a hero, trainer and supporter, all in one. He is your role model, someone you strive to be like in any way you can because you know that you can't be wrong if you choose to be like him. He will be there with you during all of the way –and it's a long one, I tell you, - dragging you forward by the scruff of the neck even if you don't want to move, guiding you when you feel like you have become lost in the road and offering help when you still can't do something in your own, fully expecting that the next time you _will_ do it in your own or Kami may help you." She chuckled softly at that, and so did Kisame, a low, comforting sound in the back of his throat that was strangely warm. "He will be there to critique all your efforts and belittle you because he knows you can do _so much better_ than that. And he knows all of that, will do all of that, because he is your _Father_."

Kurai stopped talking abruptly, suddenly ashamed of her own words. Her Otou-sama was all these things for her, all right. But he was also so much _more _than what she could ever hope to express with only words…

"Your dad is a lucky man for having you as a daughter."

She glanced at him by the corner of her eye to see if he was joking, but he only grinned down at her with his eyes closed. And hesitantly, unsteadily, clumsily...

She grinned back.

**.**

**.**

By the time Kurai stood in front of her house's door, night had already fallen over Kirigakure, sending the ugly stone buildings in total darkness that only made them appear yet more terrifying in the shadows of poorly-lit paper lanterns that were the only source of light. The mist filling the empty streets, added a touch of suspense and terror around the area, making everyone hold their breath to avoid making any unnecessary noise and attract the wrong sort of attention.

Kurai was almost knocking on the door, eager to get out of the streets when it suddenly opened itself alone.

Her Father stood on the doorway glaring at her with one hand gripping the door. Kurai's words were frozen on her throat.

"Well? Did you do it?"

She didn't ask how he knew what she was planning to do when she left the house earlier. She just gave a happy, triumphant, and just a tad little prideful, nod in confirmation. In return, her Father's lips quirked up and he beckoned her inside.

Their house's warmth invaded her senses and brought her a state of peace she didn't know she could feel in this life. Everything seemed sharper, brighter, and more _alive_. She had to wonder if it was because of Elyse's banishment or simply the euphoria of defeating her that hadn't dissipated yet. Either was, she didn't care much. She was in her home with her Father, so all was well in the world.

They ate together in a comfortable silence until Kurai decided, in a rare state of recklessness, that, since everything had been going so well today, she might as well go for it.

"Otou-sama, is Sakura the name of my mother? You know, the woman that Sandaime-sama mentioned a few weeks ago during our visit."

Her father's chopsticks had frozen mid-way to his mouth during her question and Kurai bit her tongue so hard she tasted blood. What the hell was she thinking?! She had never cared about her mother before, so why now? It was probably that Kisame boy's fault, asking her about her family and-

"Sakura isn't your mother."

Kurai snapped away from her self-punishing thoughts to look at her father. He was staring back at her serenely with a neutral expression.

"Izumi Sakura is the name of my mother, your grandmother. That is our family name. I am Yagura Izumi and you, as my daughter, are Kurai Izumi. I have never told you that, have I? It must have slipped from my mind."

The four years old girl stared at her father in shock. She had never even known they had a family name! She had been so ecstatic about having one name _at all_ that she had never asked for another one. And since her Father had mentioned growing up in the Orphanage as well, she had just assumed that he himself didn't know who his parents were. But now…

Izumi. Their name meant spring, something Kirigakure would never experience with its perpetually cold, misty and cloudy weather. And still, it sounded so right in her mind. So fitting, like the final missing piece of a ridiculously hard puzzle.

A smile bloomed in her face and a happy giggle left her mouth. For the first time in her life, Kurai studiously ignored her Father's disapproving looks (even because she could see the slight half-smile on his face) and spent the rest of dinner begging Yagura to tell her if he had any photos of her grandparents. She wanted to know if she looked anything like them.

Kurai Izumi.

She decided that she really loved her name.

…

**AN: Well, what do you guys think? Don't forget to REVIEW!**


	5. Chapter 5 - Blood in the Water Part I

**AN: There are some time-skip throughout this chapter. This chapter also has some warnings on them: death, torture, blood, as well as a little gore. If any of these things displease you, please don't read.**

**And now…**

**Dark Waters**

**Chapter 5 – Blood in the Water Part I**

**.**

**.**

Kisame Hoshigaki was running. Not from some Kiri street gang or an angry shopkeeper, as one would expect knowing his reputation.

Kisame was running through the village like a bat out of hell, dodging everyone on his way, because he was late.

It was a novel experience for the boy. Never before had he been late in his life, simply by virtue of not having a place to be on time, or someone waiting there for him.

But now he had. The thought was strangely appealing.

Kisame was never bothered before by his social status as an outcast. Maybe once upon a time, when he was still a little baby bawling his eyes out in a dingy little room at the Orphanage because no one wanted to play with the 'shark freak'. To protect himself from the pain of rejection, Kisame had simply stopped caring about the whispers and eyes following him every time he walked by and imposed himself in solitude from the rest of the world, whenever he didn't needed to steal food, clothes and trade with other street rats to survive. Apart from those briefs human contacts, the Hoshigaki lived completely alone. He had long ago accepted the fact that no one would ever want to be near him and he would live and die without anyone by his side.

And then he met her.

A tiny little girl that didn't even reach his shoulders, who looked at him without fear or contempt, as if she saw boys with shark-like features on a daily basis. She fascinated him with her sharp tongue, fearless attitude and fiery temper. She wasn't afraid of him. Instead, she would attack him in a heartbeat if she so wished or if he annoyed her long enough.

She, a tiny slip of a girl called…

"Sukoshi!"

**.**

**.**

He was late.

Kurai stood near the river she had almost drowned in less than seven weeks ago, impatiently tapping her foot on the ground, counting the minutes on her head and vowing to make Hoshigaki suffer from every wasted second of them.

She had better things to do than to stay here waiting for him to bless her with his presence!

Just when she was about to give up and go back home, a shout sounded through the forest.

"Sukoshi!"

Take deep breathes and slowly count to five, she thought to herself.

"Hey there shrimp! Sorry that I'm late, I had to take the long way to avoid some mean-faced shinobi. And how are you in this fine morning, dear Sukoshi?"

… Better to count to fifth.

"Twelve," was the only thing she told him.

Kisame stared at her uncomprehendingly. "Ah… nani?"

"You made me wait for twelve minutes. Now you are going to make twelve laps around the village with twelve pebbles glued to your body. I don't care where exactly."

"What?!" Kisame moaned. "I barely manage to keep two steady, how can you expect me to run with twelve rocks dragging me down?"

Kurai shrugged, totally unsympathetic by his plight. "Not my problem."

Kisame growled at her. She lifted an eyebrow in question. "You told me you wanted to know more about the life of a shinobi. Being a shinobi is all about testing your limits. Breaking through them. Only when you understand that, will you be able to truly become one." She told him sagely.

The Hoshigaki boy glared at her with his dark eyes, something almost calculating on his eyes. "Who said that I wanted to be a ninja? I just told you I would like to know how to use chakra, not that I wanted to enter the Academy."

She smirked at him in challenge, pink eyes shining with eagerness and hands firmly clasped behind her back; before throwing a punch at him. He reacted immediately, dodging it and sending out a powerful (for a six years old) kick that she had taught him less than two days ago and would have surely broken her leg if Kurai hadn't avoided it in time. They traded blows in a quick succession before Kurai put more distance between them, giving both a chance to catch their breath.

"Not that I didn't like it, but what was that for?" Kisame asked mildly, making sure to stay in a defensive position in case she decided to go for a second round.

Kurai gave him a triumphant smirk. "That was proof. I don't need you to tell me you want to become a shinobi Kisame. Your every action is loud and clear enough. You seek the thrill of the battle like a drenched man seeks water to sate his thirst; you crave the surge of your blood running through your veins so fast that you can hear it move in your adrenaline-filled body. You want to fight, was born to do it. Against me or someone else, it doesn't matter. You will become a shinobi, because you can't see yourself as anything else."

The air around them was thick with something Kurai couldn't identify and she wondered if she had crossed a line with Kisame somewhere in her speech. Had she offended him? Maybe she should have simply kept quiet and waited until he was ready to voice his opinion on the matter of becoming a real ninja?

"Ya know, I worry 'bout you sometimes Sukoshi. If you have time to psychoanalyze me like that, I think we really need to find a new hobby for you aside from training."

It took a second for Kurai to realize that Kisame was attempting to make a joke. When she did, she pointedly ignored his use of the hated nickname and gasped in false chock, wide pink eyes staring at him.

Kisame shifted on his foot, suddenly nervous at her wide-eyed gaze. "What is it?" he asked, unsure he really wanted to know the answer.

"I never knew you could use big words such as 'psychoanalyze' Kisame-kun! Look at that, my little fish is growing up. Soon he will become a big blue shark and swim far away, never to come back."

Kisame stared at her flatly and unimpressed. "If you're trying to tell me something with that last part, you better try again."

She pouted at him, "A lady can dream, can't she?"

The shark-boy made a show of looking around and squinting his dark eyes at the mist. "There is a lady here? Where? Why didn't you warn me?"

"YOU BAKA!"

Just one more everyday occurrence for Hoshigaki Kisame and Izumi Kurai.

**.**

**.**

The next mouth found Kurai waking up in her bed, staring at the ceiling for the first five minutes and only listening to the silence of Kiri's morning, marveling how much more she had come to appreciate that quietness after being forced to listen to Kisame's ramblings all mornings for six weeks. Like they say, you never know what you had until you lose it.

She really ought to stop paying attention to these old sayings.

After forcing herself out of bed and the bathroom, Kurai was ready to head to the clearing she and Kisame had made their secret meeting point, after making a quick stop at the kitchen, when her father's presence blocked her from leaving the house.

Yagura was leaning against the stove in his usual attire of green and grey clothes with blue shinobi sandals, an empty glass of water on his hand. The four years old looked up at her father with far too innocent eyes. "Good morning, Otou-sama."

Her Father fixed her with a stare that could freeze fire. "Where are you going so early Kurai?"

She blinked at him, cocking her head sideways and wondered what she should answer. She wouldn't lie, of course not. Kurai would never lie to her Otou-sama. But she wasn't certain if he would approve of her association with Hoshigaki. The two weren't friends, but at the same time they weren't strangers anymore, and, in a very far away future, she might end up growing… fond of his incessant and meaningless chatter.

Not that Kurai would ever let things reach that point. She would sooner let her eardrums burst.

"Training Otou-sama. By the river, like every morning." Kurai wasn't lying. She was going to train. She just never said she was going to do it alone.

The slight narrowing of Yagura's eyes told her that he didn't believe her words for a second. "When will you be back?"

"After lunch, Otou-sama. I was just going to prepare my food."

She had been skipping lunch at home for two days now, instead taking it with her every day she went to train. Kurai had discovered that Kisame did not, in fact, live in one of Kiri's orphanages.

She discovered that quite by accident one morning, after waiting more than half an hour for Hoshigaki to appear when Kurai decided to hunt him down, intent in throwing him at the river for making her wait. Following the unique trail of Kisame's chakra was easy. It felt like the ocean, something big and terrifying that would wrap around and crush all of you. The young kunoichi-in-training had no doubt that the boy would grow up to be a chakra powerhouse in the future. She was surprised, however, when she realized that the chakra she was tracking felt almost… subdued. Weak. Powerless.

Now, Kurai had only know the boy for a few scant mouths, but every since then Kisame had never demonstrated any sight of weakness, even when she broke his arm by accident, thinking he would be able to dodge fast enough. His resilience and strength of will at such young age was something Kurai could admire and respect in the recesses of her mind, something she would never admit out aloud to him, as she had no wish to hear him gloat about that. So Kurai was most definitely not ready to find such a strong and prideful boy broken. Correction, just hurt. It would take much more than a mere beating to break Hoshigaki Kisame. But it didn't mean it wouldn't hurt all the same.

She could still remember that day clearly in her mind.

_It was a shock to find Hoshigaki Kisame, the boy she had know, talked and trained with for two weeks now, lying down in a garbage bag in an alley with broken bones, bruises and blood all over his face, chest and back. Kurai felt something stirring in her chest at the gruesome sight; she didn't like it. For a terrible moment, she thought the boy was dead._

_Just for a moment thought, as in the next second Kisame's swollen eyes opened to cautiously peer at her. In an instant, Kurai was at his side trying to remember everything her Father had taught her about healing, which wasn't much._

_"What happened to you?!" she asked furiously, wiping away the blood under Kisame's eyes before retracting her hand when she felt him flinch at her touch. In the darkness of the alley, she couldn't see his wounds, but she could feel them. A horrified look crossed her face. "Did someone carve on your face?"_

_Kurai honestly didn't know why that knowledge surprised her so much. They lived in the Village of the Bloody Mist and she had **seen** the cruelty of Kiri shinobi, saw children younger than her die as a passing amusement for them and the ones who didn't sometimes wished they had. Suicide wasn't something terribly uncommon in Kiri. It wasn't even that hard a thing to achieve if you wanted it bad enough._

_But Kurai hadn't know these children, had never even spoke to them while they had been alive, so in her mind, they weren't real. Their wounds, their deaths, they didn't affect her in the least but in the sharp, pointed fact that what happened to them could happen to her as well if she wasn't careful. However, the thought that this could happen to someone she knew, spoke and interacted with, someone that was **real** to her, had never crossed her mind and was a jarring thought that shook Kurai to her very core._

_Kisame looked at her with dark eyes far too weary to belong to a child his age. "They told me I was a shark…" he whispered weakly, so low that Kurai had to lean forward to hear the words. "Said I needed gills"_

_It was then that Kurai realized that the sharp cuts still oozing a little blood around the boy's face were supposed to represent fish gills. She thanked Kami that she hadn't eaten anything this morning because the girl felt sick in her stomach. The smell of blood in the alley was beginning to get to her. She needed to get Kisame out of there before someone else found him and-_

"Kurai."

The girl blinked, dispersing the memory from a fey days ago and trained her eyes to her father.

"Did you listen to me or were you too distracted to hear my words?"

Cheeks brightening with mortification and shame at her actions, Kurai shook her head guiltily. "Gomen'nasai Otou-sama."

"I said that I'm leaving on a long-term mission and might not come back for some months. Can you look after yourself until I return?"

Eager to remedy her early bust of inattentiveness, the four years old girl frantically nodded her head. "Hai, Otou-sama"

The grey-haired man nodded once and picked up the travel bag she hadn't noticed was at his feet and, with a quick shushin, vanished from sight.

Well, it seemed she was on her own now, for a few months at least.

That could only mean one thing.

"Kisame."

**.**

"So, are you sure it's a good idea?"

"Shut up. You know I would never let you in if it wasn't safe."

"Then you mean it could be dangerous to me?!"

"My Otou-sama is not very accepting of… this. He doesn't believe that someone who isn't related to you by blood can be more than an ally. That's why you have to be careful. Otou-sama wouldn't like to know a stranger has entered our house. I fear what he would do to you if he found out."

"Aww~! I'm flattered that you trust me enough to invite me to your home Sukoshi!"

"Shut up! The only reason you are here is so that I can treat those wounds properly."

"So you do care~"

"Shut up!"

Kurai was already regretting ever taking Kisame to her house. Wounds be damned, if he didn't stop talking she was going to kick him out herself.

"Thank you."

The unexpectedly serious thanks Kurai received made her turn her head sideways to stare at the older boy. "For what?"

"For taking care of me. No one ever did."

Both were silent for a few minutes until they reached one of her house's two bathrooms. When Kurai looked at the mirror hanging on the wall, she saw two children, far too young to know about pain and the fear of it. She saw a girl with pink eyes that have seen more than people thrice her age and would see much more before her teen years have come and gone. She saw a boy of six years with blue skin painted black and blue, with scars a child his age should never carry and a haunted look on his eyes that told of the horrors he had seen in his young life.

She saw two children living in fear and pain, and wondered if both of them would live long enough to have children themselves.

"Sometimes people can be so stupid, can't they?" she asked, still staring at the mirror.

"Yeah. They can be."

**.**

Kurai was able to heal much of Kisame's wounds with the help of her father's first aid-kit but was unable to stop the ones on his face from scarring. The boy now looked like a shark even more, as loath as she as to admit. Six red and still raw gill-like markings, that Kurai was certain would darken with time, stood starkly against the boy's blue skin, three under which eye, increasing his already intimidating figure and giving him a most impressive glare.

She was surprised when Kisame didn't seem to mind them; indeed, he used them on his face like a badge of honor. Kurai had thought the boy would hate the gill-like scars, but he only told her that "Those are battle scars. They are the first ones I gained after deciding to become a shinobi and they show that I was strong enough to survive what the world threw at me. I refuse to hide them." And refuse he did, walking around Kiri with his head held high and an arrogant look on his face, glaring at every child they came across, sending them scurrying like rats to the dark.

Kurai had shrugged and told him to do what he wanted. The body was his, and he did with it what he wished.

She also had to admit that, strangely enough, the scars suited him rather well.

But the scars weren't the topic of their conversation right now.

"Come on, you have to remember. They carved freaking gills on your face; you must have seen at least one of them."

"I'm telling you, it was dark!"

"And what the hell were you doing in the streets after dark?! Are you really that stupid? Wait, don't answer me that."

"Ha, ha, ha. You're so funny Sukoshi."

"Don't try to change the subject Kisame Hoshigaki. We are talking about the kids that attacked you."

"And I'm telling you, I don't remember"

"You're lying! Why are you lying to me?!"

They were at it for fifteen minutes now and both of them were at their limit. Kurai had been questioning Kisame about his assailants every day and the boy had been stubbornly withholding information on that front.

"Who said that I'm lying?"

"Your left eye always twitches when you lie!"

"It doesn't!"

"It does!"

"It doesn't!"

"It- Ah! Stop trying to distract me! Why won't you tell me?!"

"Because I don't want you getting hurt damnit!"

Stunned, Kurai simply looked at him for a moment before opening her mouth, ready to give the boy in front of her a witty answer, when she saw his face.

Kisame was glaring at her before shifting his face to stare at the ground. "I wasn't strong enough to fight off all of them. I don't want you getting hurt because I was incapable of fighting my own battles."

He's afraid, Kurai realizes. Afraid that she will get hurt because of him.

Kurai felt her heart flutter a little in her chest. What was that feeling?

Kisame continued his tirade. "They were five in total. I think I killed one. One of the boys was holding a bat and while I was fighting two others, the third came from behind and struck me on the leg. My leg broke, but I was able to take the bat from him in the middle of the fall and swing it behind me. I felt when it hit something hard and then blood sprayed everywhere. One of the boys screamed and ran away, but the other three came charging at me with everything they had. But the other one, the one I hit… he didn't move again, not even a twitch. Even when the gang left and I dragged myself away from the place, the blond kid – I think his name was Jishin - still laid sprawled across the ground, with eyes staring straight ahead and a mess on the side of his face still dripping blood and... other things."

When Kurai saw the way Kisame shuddered, she knew she did not want to see what the 'other things' were.

Kisame looked up from the floor then, a strange look on his eyes and smiled at her. "You were right. It felt good. So good, to see them standing over my battered body and still be able to see the fear in their eyes when they looked down at me. They were terrified of me, Kurai, even while I laid there bleeding in the ground they still choose to flee instead of finishing me off." His face acquired a fierce and eager expression. "I want them to feel that fear again Sukoshi. I want to see their bodies lying in the ground broken and bloodied and enjoy every moment of it."

She stared at him. Was it wrong of Kurai to feel such pride at Kisame's words? She was pretty sure it was. Did she care? Definitely not.

She was too busy beaming down at the boy, too busy congratulating herself for turning the child in front of her into someone with the potential to be truly great. Of course, she hadn't lied when she told Kisame that he was a born fighter that day when he questioned her motives for training him in the shinobi arts. But no matter how much raw and natural talent he possessed, it was still nothing compared to the elaborate and fine control a master could achieve with the right guidance. And Kurai wanted to see Kisame become a master. Not because of some childish desire to see him well-off in his life, but for the gratification it would bring, knowing that she had had a hand in making him a powerful, feared individual. Her Father was molding her to become his perfect tool. Was it wrong to want to mold something at her image for herself as well?

And Kisame had surely surpassed her expectations with his bloodthirstiness and willingness.

Demon shark, indeed. My Demon Shark.

He was hers, and no one but Kurai was allowed to make him bleed. Perhaps it was time to remind some people why their village was called the Bloody Mist. But first, Kisame had to heal for a few more months. In the meantime, they would plan, would bind their time and train. Then, and only then, would they attack.

It was going to be some long months of waiting.

**.**

Nakamura Shingi was a normal eight year old boy, or at least by Kiri standards. He was one more street rat, quick and ruthless when needed to be, and although he wasn't the brightest kid in his gang, he was by no means the stupidest. No, that title went for Yokushin, now the oldest boy in their gang and right-hand man of their leader, Jishin.

Shingi shook his head sadly. He meant, their dead leader, Jishin.

The almost fourteen years old blond was killed by that blue freak almost five months ago, during the execution of one more of the stupid ideas of Yokushin. It was the second-in-command's (now leader) idea to plot an attack against the Kisame kid. "He stole from us," Shingi could still remember the boy's words to explain the reason behind his plan so many months ago. "He invaded our territory and stole our food."

Actually, it was their gang that had invaded the Hoshigaki's territory and the true reason their food keep disappearing was because Yokushin had been eating it behind Jishin's back all the damn time, putting the blame on a kid the other side of the village. Shingi himself had seen the lies in Yokushin's words and had tried to convince Jishin in private about the true culprit, but the blond boy wouldn't listen to him no matter how long he talked or how much evidence stood against Yokushin. Shingi couldn't believe that their leader could be so blind but then, he figured, no one wanted to believe that their little brother had been disobeying your orders and plotting how to overthrown you in the nearby future.

Or that they would actually manage to do it.

"Oi, Shingi! Leader wants to know if you got anything today."

Shingi glanced from his spot leaning against a wall to see two of his friends, Kimi and Takeshi, running towards him. They were twins, younger than him, both dark-haired and green-eyed, and had stayed behind the night of the assault against Hoshigaki, as had the majority of their gang. In fact, the only ones that had gone that night had been Jishin, Yokushin, Jukei, Ikari and himself.

He wondered if any of the four thought that one of them wouldn't be returning to the base that night. Yokushin, probably, as well as Jukei, his best friend and new second-in-command. Shingi wouldn't have been surprised if Yokushin himself had tried to kill Jishin, had the shark boy not done the deed first. Jishin would. Jishin would not have understood why his little brother was trying to kill him.

Shingi always thought his leader was too soft-hearted concerning his brother. Look what that brought him.

"I didn't have any luck. The only ones passing by my post today were ninja, and I'm not stupid enough to steal from them."

Kimi winced in sympathy. "Yokushin-sama won't be happy."

"I don't give two shits to what Yokushin thinks."

Takeshi glared at him hard. "Don't say that. Leader is already itching for a chance to punish you for being loyal to that J-boy."

Shingi rolled his eyes. "We are outside the base Takeshi. Yokushin won't hear it if you decide to say Jishin's name."

It had become a rule in their gang as of late. If someone dared to say Jishin's name out loud, they were immediately punished with death, or worse. Exile.

Shingi gulped. He would take death any day of the week before choosing to be exiled. In the Underworld, being without a gang to back you up was worse than being dead. You were alone then, not allowed to enter any district but also can't return to the one you were driven away from. You became worse than a pariah, which was Hoshigaki's case, someone no one wanted to be involved in. No, you became everyone's meat, constantly on the run from every gang in the village, always afraid that if you spent too long in one place, someone would find and beat you to an inch of your life.

No, being in a gang was already hard enough. Shingi didn't want to live on the run for the rest of his life too. So even if it meant to bow down to a man with the moral compass of a Kiri ninja, Shingi would bend his knees. Survival was his goal in life, always had been since day one, and it was something much easier to achieve if you had a place you could (kind of) call home and people you could (kind of) trust to watch your back.

His thoughts of survival didn't quell the guilt on his chest however.

Jishin had saved him when he was just a little boy who had watched his parents get slaughtered by ninjas of their own village. He had taken him in, a child himself, and taken care of him like he took care of his own baby brother. Shingi remembered that at some point in his youth he had called his rescuer 'Ji-nii!'.

And then he had abandoned the man who saved his life, running away like a coward instead of staying and fighting against that shark boy that killed his brother in all but blood. A fact Yokushin and Jukei took wicked delight in informing him every single day.

So absorbed was he in his thought, that the boy didn't notice the two shadows that followed him, Kimi and Takeshi while they made their way back to the base.

**.**

**.**

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Are you absolutely sure? Do you remember him?"

"Positive. He was the one who ran away when I killed the blond teen."

"Well, then. That makes it easy. What do you say about us going there to say hello?"

"I like the way you think Sukoshi."

"The same goes to you"

**.**

**.**

It all went to hell very quickly.

One minute Shingi was being punched in the face, courtesy of Jukei, for failing to get anything worth for the gang and the next minute a young and melodic voice sounded through the shack.

"My, my. It seems that you all are quite busy, hn? Too bad, I wanted to play with some of you."

As one, everyone turned to look at the newcomer who had dared to breach into their base, their home.

Shingi didn't know about anyone else, but he felt rather shocked. The speaker was a toddler, nothing more, nothing less, even younger than their youngest members, Kimi and Takeshi, both six years old. And she was pretty, he thought, with a slight blush on his cheeks. Far prettier than any other girl in their gang, but this might come from the fact that the little girl was in far better condition than any other in the abandoned shack used by his gang as their base of operation. Her short black curly hair was brushed and clean, her clothes were obviously top-notch and free of holes and dirt, and although very small, she seemed well fed and healthy.

In resume, she definitely did not belong among Kiri's rats.

Yokushin seemed to notice the same thing, for he got up from his chair to glare at the girl. "And what do we have here? Are you lost little girl?" he sneered, greedily eyeing the fine clothes the girl wore. Probably trying to calculate how much they would be worth in the market.

The girl –whose eyes were pink, Shingi noticed with a start-, calmly looked back at his leader, expression blank of emotions. "No."

Yokushin appeared surprised by the girl's short and blunt answer, and even shared bewildered glances between Jukei and Ikari, who seemed as confused as their leader. Then Ikari stepped over Shingi's beaten body, taking care to stomp right on his fingers on his way, to sneer at the child. "Who are you kid, and what do you want?"

To Shingi's surprise, she giggled at Ikari's question. "I was searching for four people, you see, but now I found them and want to play!"

"Oh?" Yokushin, finally out of his shock at finding a little girl inside his supposed secret base, asked. "And who are the ones you want to play with?"

The girl giggled yet again. There was something in her laugh that bothered the hell out of Shingi, making his skin crawl. He also wasn't the only one, if the nervous glances being sent at the dark-haired girl by the younger members of his gang were any indication.

"Now, now. If I told you so easily it wouldn't be funny. Tell you what, I will give you some riddles and if you guess correctly, I give you a gift."

Jukei raised an eyebrow, amused. "And if we don't?"

"Then you won't receive the reward, I'm afraid." The pink-eyed girl told them mournfully.

"What is the gift?" Yokushin demanded to know.

The girl reached for a pouch strapped at her waist and pulled out four golden coins. Everyone's eyes grew wide. Were they made of true gold?

"Ask your riddles girl," barked Yokushin, his golden eyes never leaving the coins on her hand. "Ask and my friends and I will answer."

She smirked. "With me, you will never know reason. I will blind you to everything else and drive you to kill your enemy. What am I?"

After some seconds, a smirking Ikari gave a step forward, holding out a hand to receive a coin. "I am Rage."

The girl smiled and tossed him one of the coins. "Very good," she praised him, as if the boy was a particularly stupid dog that finally managed to perform some trick. Ikari ignored her in favor to admire his newest treasure.

"Now, I am the thing given to anyone who breaks the rules, no matter their reasons for doing so. What am I?"

This time, Jukei walked towards the pink-eyed child and said proudly, "I am Punishment."

Once more, the child praised him, giving another coin away.

"Third one. I live in the seas and there I am king. Even the bravest of captains has come to fear me. What am I?"

Yokushin smirked and shouted triumphantly, "I am a Shark!"

The girl clapped this time, smiling brightly as she tossed the third coin in Yokushin's direction.

By that time, everyone watched the last coin, wondering who it was meant to. The strange girl looked around the room, her pink eyes lingering in his form on the ground for less than a second before announcing to the whole room her fourth and last riddle.

"I come for all who grow, crawl, and walk. I am the perfect hunter. In the end, I am the victor. What is my name?"

No one could answer that last one, no matter how much they thought about it. It was only when Shingi felt her eyes on him again, felt their cold stare on his head, that the answer came for him.

He wished it hadn't.

From the ground, Shingi whispered the correct answer and saw as the room grew silent as they processed his words.

"I am Death."

The girl, who was no longer smiling, looked at him with her cold pink eyes before throwing the last golden coin at him. It rolled across the filthy ground until it stopped near his knees. Shingi made no move to pick it up.

He had a very bad feeling about all of this.

Rage.

Punishment.

Shark.

Death.

Why did all those words made him want to run away screaming? They were just words, just meaningless and useless words.

"Yes." The girl whispered, loud enough for the whole room to hear it. "I am Death. Or better yet, I am the harbinger of your deaths."

Ikari snarled at her, "What are you playing at kid?!"

She merely stared at him with her big pink eyes, cold and almost lifeless, with a small smile on her face. "You really shouldn't have harmed that boy, mister. You really, really shouldn't."

What happened next could only be described as magic. One minute the girl was alone, facing off against a furious Ikari of all people, and then another person materialized at her side. The cloaked person moved and suddenly, Ikari was crying out in pain, and backing away as fast as his legs could carry him, clutching at his left arm. His broken left arm.

The cloaked person removed the black cap from his head when he was sure that all eyes were on him. Shingi felt his face go pale when his brain finally caught up to what he was seeing and his mouth hung open in shock and slight fear.

Kisame Hoshigaki was back from the dead. And more terrifying than ever.

The riddle girl beamed at them all. "Now you are going to have to be punished."

The shark boy smirked, showing off too many pointy teeth to be considered friendly. "Oh, this is going to be fun."

**.**

Kurai was having the time of her life. Who knew scaring the daylights out of children could be so funny? Maybe there was some reason behind the adults' sadistic tendencies…

Ah, well, something to ponder later. Right now, she had a job to do.

Kurai was acting as the damage control. She would be making sure that no one left the shack until Kisame was done with his own fun. For the majority of the gang, a single long and withering cold glare was enough to make them stay put, but one or two needed a little more… persuasion.

The three dead bodies lying in the floor was enough to stomp in any more attempts at escape.

Meanwhile, Kisame was laughing madly as he ducked under the flying fists of Yokushin, Ikari and Jukei, sending out his own and causing the boys to cuss and yell in pain and anger.

Oh, yeah. Kisame was having his fun too.

Kurai watched as the Hoshigaki boy sidestepped an enraged Ikari with a graciousness no one would have thought the bulky boy capable of accomplish. She watched as Kisame took out a kunai and slashed the boy's back, from his right shoulder all the way down to his left hip. After a strong kick to the ribs, Kisame took the boy by his red hair and slit his throat.

Kurai didn't even blink seeing Kisame kill the boy. Maybe it was because she had known death since her birth, was practically an acquaintance with it. Maybe it was because she had seen children being tortured to death or committing suicide themselves to escape the trauma of it that had made her so blasé about it. Maybe it was because she was numb. Numb, numb, numb and couldn't understand that killing was wrong.

Either way, she didn't care. Those children Kisame was playing with meant nothing to her in the end and she could care less about their fates.

Still, Kisame seemed to be having fun. Maybe she could join…?

**.**

Kisame was having the time of his life.

He laughed as he avoided the pocket-knife from the Blade Boy (he couldn't be bothered to learn his name) and only felt the intense desire to rip him apart, with his bare hands if that was what it took.

It was in moments like thins that Kisame wished for a sword. One big, bad-ass sword that would make his enemies cower before him, begging for their lives. Oh, how he wished for a sword that would help him shred his enemies apart.

Definitely a thought to ponder on later, after his business here was done.

Grabbing the hand holding the knife inches away from his face, Kisame snarled, throwing Blade Boy away from him and breaking Leader Boy's leg for trying to catch him from behind. The golden-eyed leader let out a high-pitched cry and fell on the floor, crawling away from him.

Pathetic. And these were the boys that had tried to kill him mere months ago? Now Kisame felt disgusted with himself. How could he have been careless enough to low his guard like that and allow those morons to beat him up?

Looking at Blade Boy panting with a broken wrist from where Kisame had gripped a tad too tight, the shark felt his smirk grow. "I remember how skilled you were with the blade. Let's see with I have the same aptitude, shall we?"

Blade Boy's screams were loud, but nowhere as high-pitched as Leader Boy.

**.**

Yokushin was crawling towards the exit, his broken leg dragging behind him on the floor. He needed to get out of there while the monster was busy with Jukei. He needed to get out of there before what happened to Jukei happened to him as well. He-

"Sukoshi, Leader Boy is escaping. Could you catch him for me, please?"

In less than a second, the riddle girl that had given him a piece of gold less than half a hour ago stood in front of him holding a kunai in one hand.

He stared at him in terror. She wouldn't kill him, would she? No, of course not. She was just a little girl, she couldn't even hurt a fly-

Yokushin screamed when the kunai being held by the girl was driven into the ground, through his hand, all the way till the handle.

He couldn't believe it. What had he done to deserve this?

Well, yes, he had been planning to dispose of his idiotic older brother, but he never tainted his hands with Jishin's blood. No, the one that had done the honors was the very same individual who was carving kanji on Jukei's forehead.

Oh, please Kami, have mercy.

He looked at the girl who had driven a kunai through his bloody hand, and would have shrank back from the cold stare he was receiving if it didn't hurt so fucking much to move his arm. And realized, looking at the girls pink pupiless eyes, that there was no help coming his way, no divine intervention that could save him.

This is how Yokushin was going to die; on his knees, begging for his life at the feet of children younger than him, one of them being his brother's murder.

This is how Yokushin was going to die; looking in the eyes of a merciless, bloodthirsty beast, a hungry predator he had been foolish enough to go against and in the face of a real monster that hid her true nature under the mask of a beautiful dark angel with pink eyes colder than the Shinigami's.

A look of understanding passed between his two tormentors, the girl taking a step back, the boy moving forward, the glint of a kunai and the feeling of cold steel on his throat…

This is how Yokushin died; inside his own base in the cold and stone floor, with his throat cut open and chocking on his own blood.

Jishin… I wonder if I will see you in hell….Probably not. You always were the golden boy, you wouldn't go to hell. Just one more thing to hate about you, dear aniki.

Those were Yokushin's last thoughts.

"Well, that was fun."

…

**AN: Hehehe, late chapter, I know. Hadn't had the time to update sooner, life has been very busy recently. What do you think about this chapter? REVIEW!**


	6. Chapter 6 - Blood in the Water Part II

**AN: Thank you all who reviewed, favored and followed! You all are amazing people. WARNINGS, PLEASE READ****: There will be gore, blood, attempt rape and death in this chapter, as well as some mental scarring and coarse language. If you don't like it, don't read. You have been warned.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I own my OCs. **

**Dark Waters**

**Chapter 6 – Blood in the Water Part II**

**.**

**.**

Shingi looked at the body of his leader and felt absolutely nothing. In his opinion, Yokushin deserved to die and even if he wasn't the one to do the deed himself, it was still satisfactory enough that he got to see him being tortured and then killed.

However, not many others of his gang seemed to share his sentiment.

Kimi was crying on Takeshi's chest, her screams muffled by his clothes. Takeshi himself appeared on the verge of tears, but was holding himself for his little sister. He did seem a little green in the face, thought. Other boys and girls had already lost what little they had on their stomachs and puddles of vomit littered the ground along with the blood. So much blood.

Shingi turned to look at the two children –no, they weren't children. Those mini monsters in front of him were not kids, even if they were younger than him.

No, his mind whispered. They are shinobi.

Shinobi. The mere word was enough to make him shiver in fear.

The pink-eyed girl, that Hoshigaki had called 'Sukoshi', was looking at him. Shingi let out a resigned sigh. He knew why they were here. They had made it pretty obvious when the shark boy begun to play with Yokushin, Ikari and Jukei.

He knew that he was the next one.

Strangely enough, Shingi wasn't afraid. His only wish to die on his feet, unlike the other three that died begging on the floor.

Slowly and painfully, Shingi got to his feet, all the while feeling the eyes of everyone on him. He could only imagine what his gang was thinking. Probably that he was going to die soon.

"What is your name?" the dark-haired girl asked, tilting her head to the side, a gesture so curious and child-like that he forgot for a moment about the blood literally coating her hands.

Surprised by her question, he answered automatically. "Shingi. Shingi Nakamura."

"He was the one who ran away, right Kisame?" she asked the blood-splattered boy next to her.

"Yeah. He didn't even try to come near the fight."

Shame burned inside Shingi at the younger boy's words, despite having heard all them from Yokushin and Jukei enough times to make his ears bleed. Shingi was a coward and everyone knew it. He was too much of a coward to go against Jishin's orders to leave Yokushin alone, too much of a coward to join the assault that night, too much of a coward to fight against the shark-boy that took his leader's life, too much of a coward to stand up against Yokushin's tyranny.

But not anymore. This time, he would face his fears head on, and if he died, then he would die on his feet like his civilian father died on his feet even while a ninja was gutting him.

He would meet Jishin and his parents in the other world and be able to look them in the eyes damnit.

"He doesn't look like much… Sure you want to kill him too?"

Shingi closed his eyes. It was time. He only wished that he could have said goodbye to Kimi and Takeshi, apologize for leaving them alone so early. Maybe there was still some time…?

"Well, now that you put it that way, he really doesn't seem worth the effort."

"What do you say about letting him and the rest go? They didn't participate, and I want to take a bath. While you were busy having your fun, you got blood all over my nice clothes."

Were they really talking about their clothes while deciding if he was worth the time it would take to kill him? Shingi didn't know if he should feel relief or annoyance. For his sanity's sake, he choose to be relieved. Maybe he could still get out of this situation.

"Hey, Shingi, was it?"

Said boy lifted his head from the ground to look at dark pools staring at him in amusement. It took everything from the boy not to step away from Hoshigaki. Anyone that looked at the boy would think he had decided to bath in blood that night.

In retrospect, wasn't that what happened only minutes ago?

"Y-yes?"

"Tell me the name of the teen I killed that night." It wasn't a request; it was a demand, one Shingi didn't dare ignore.

"His name was Jishin. He was our leader."

"And who was the boy Kisame just killed, that called himself your leader?" the girl asked.

"Yokushin, my Lady."

The girl looked started at being called that, before throwing her head back and laughing loudly. "'My Lady'? I quite like that. See, Kisame. Shingi-kun has more manners than you."

The shark-boy scowled at her before throwing a frown on Shingi's direction. It was enough to make the boy step away. There was simply no way that he would stay near the blue-skinned boy when more than half of his face was covered in blood.

Shingi stopped walking when he felt a small hand close around his shirt. He looked down to stare at the little pink-eyed girl –and how the hell had she moved so fast?!- who had her hand closed around his tattered grey shirt. If he kept pushing, he could escape her hold. But then the shirt would be ripped apart and he only had that one. Shingi couldn't afford to lose what little clothing he had, even if it was to escape the hold of a shinobi. Kiri was freezing cold in the best of days. At the worst… He suppressed a shiver.

"You didn't take the coin. Why?" there it was, the same curious tone and tilting of the head as before. It was driving him crazy.

Shingi jerked his head towards the bodies of Yokushin, Ikari and Jukei. "They took your coins."

Big pupiless pink eyes stared at him in amusement. "You are a smart one, aren't you? Very, very smart. Maybe a little too much for your own good," the hand gripped his shirt tighter.

Shingi gulped. He could feel Hoshigaki's dark eyes glaring holes at his head.

"What do you think about making a deal with us, Shingi-kun?"

The eight years old licked his dry lips. "What kind of deal?"

"Kisame and I will leave you and the rest of your gang alone, unless if someone wants to cause trouble. In that case we will defend ourselves and punish those responsible."

"And what do you want in return?" he asked hesitantly.

She beamed at him. "I knew you were a smart one! In return you will make sure that every gang, thief and orphan living in the streets of Kirigakure knows what happened here today. You will tell everyone what Kisame did to the boys who dared hurt him. You will tell them how he broke their bones one by one, mutilated one of them, opened the other up with a kunai-knife and feasted on their blood. You will tell them that Kiri's streets have a new monster roaming on them and his name is Hoshigaki Kisame."

All the occupants of the shack were holding their breaths, the air thick with apprehension and uneasiness.

"A-anything that you wish, m-my Lady," was Shingi's shaky answer.

The tension slowly dissipated when the little girl nodded at him in obvious approval and Shingi let out a relieved sigh. He would live to see another day, it seems.

"Well, now that this is done, we will take our leave. Don't forget about our deal, Shingi-kun."

And with that last ominous remark, the dark-haired demon child turned her back to him and walked out the door, without sparing anyone a second glance.

Shingi was about to let loose the tension on his shoulders when he felt the stare at his back and realized that Hoshigaki was still there with them. Before he could turn, a strong and blood-coated blue hand came to rest on his left shoulder in a firm grip. Shingi could feel Kisame's warm breath on the nape of his neck.

"You got lucky, mate. Make sure that that luck doesn't run out."

Shingi watched as Kisame made his was to the door, the gang stepping away from him as he went, opening up a clear path for the shark-boy to pass through. But of course, the blue-skinned boy just had to turn around and give him one last mocking smirk.

"Don't be a stranger, Shingi-kun."

A shiver ran down his spine and Shingi watched with barely veiled relief as the door was slammed shut behind the retreating form of one Hoshigaki Kisame.

He had survived.

He was alive.

Oh, great Kami, he was fucking alive.

It was then that the events of the day finally caught up with the young Nakamura and he fell on the hard floor in a dead faint.

**.**

**.**

Kurai nodded in greeting at Kisame when he finally appeared at their meeting place near the river. "Why did you take so long?" she asked with a raised eyebrow, leaning against a large boulder.

Kisame smiled at her sheepishly. "I wanted to have one last word with the Nakamura boy."

The dark-haired girl narrowed her pink eyes at him. "You didn't kill him, did you?" she would be pissed if he had.

The Hoshigaki boy shrugged his shoulders casually. "Who knows?"

"Kisame…"

"Alright, alright, calm down. I didn't touch him in any way, unless you count a friendly hand on his shoulder"

"Friendly?"

"Completely harmless," he assured her with a smirk.

"Humf," she huffed. "Good. I would have been very cross with you otherwise."

Kisame plopped himself next to her in the ground, experientially disregarding her scowl at him for invading her personal space. "I don't understand why we didn't kill him. What was the point of letting him spread rumors about us? I don't want people to avoid pissing me off. I want the challenge," the boy almost whined at her.

Kurai slid off the boulder to sit in the forest ground next to Kisame. "The point is that with the rumors going on about you, we will attract attention of not only the civilians, but the shinobi as well. They always pay attention about especially violent street kids."

"Why? I thought they didn't care about us?" the blue-haired boy asked bewildered.

"They don't. But whenever some kid with a special penchant to bloodshed appears on the streets, they like to keep tabs on them to see with they have potential to become ninja. If rumors about what you did to the leaders of a gang because they dared to attack you reach their ears, your chances of being sent to the Academy and maybe even apprenticed under a chunnin become higher."

He stared at her with an unreadable look in his eyes. "You put a lot of thought on it, Sukoshi."

"Hai, Hoshigaki-san. Unlike some other people, I actually use the thing called a brain that the gods gifted me with" was the serene retort, with a slight twitching right eye at the hated nickname.

"Correct me if I'm wrong Sukoshi, but did you look at me when you said 'unlike some other people'?"

"Why, Hoshigaki-san, yes, I believe I did."

"Sukoshi…"

"Hai, Hoshigaki?"

He lunged at her.

They rolled around the ground, with Kisame grinning and laughing loudly and Kurai scowling with pink eyes bright in amusement, furiously wrestling against each other to decide who was to be on top. It wasn't a taijutsu match as much was it was two children simply playing fight, like newborn puppies biting and yipping at each other. Innocent, despite the blood that was drying on their clothes and skin.

But they should have known that nothing innocent lasts long in Kirigakure.

"Kurai."

The voice, thought it wasn't shouted or, really, even said in a slight louder tone of voice, cut through the children's fight like someone had dumped a bucket of ice-cold water over them.

In seconds, Kurai was struggling against Kisame's body in an effort to get out of the ground, pink eyes locked at the man standing a few meters away from them.

Izumi Yagura stood with his arms crossed and staring down at his daughter with a chilling glare that sent shivers down the two kids' spine.

"O-otou-sama." Kurai squeaked like a mouse, finally managing to get out from under Kisame.

"What is the meaning of this, Kurai?" Yagura's eyes were chips of ice pink, and the girl gave an involuntary shudder when she was reminded of Hiyasu's cold brown eyes.

"I… I-"

"How long?"

"Otou-sama?" she asked hesitantly.

"For how long have you been lying to me?"

The young girl's eyes widened. "Otou-sama! I never-"

"You told me you were going to the river every morning to train. I arrived from my mission to an empty house and searched for my daughter, who I expected to be training like she told me she would be. Instead, I find you rolling in the mud like some wild animal with a boy." He sent a nasty glare to Kisame, who made his best effort to disappear, a fruitless quest for the big blue boy.

"So tell me, daughter. How exactly did you not lie to me?" her father asked rhetorically.

"I, I just-"

"Spare me your excuses. I do not wish to hear them. I thought I could trust you, but apparently I was wrong."

"Otou-sama-!"

Her Father continued relentless. "You will no longer come to this river. You will stay at home, where I will personally oversee your training. I do not want to see you associating with this boy any longer Kurai, am I clear?"

"If you just hear me out-" she was becoming desperate.

"Am I clear, Kurai?"

Silence. Kisame stared at her Father with wide eyes and for the first time Kurai saw him looking afraid. She closed her eyes.

She knew what she had to do.

"Hai, Otou-sama. I'm sorry for disappointing you."

Yagura gave a curt nod in acknowledgement of her apology, his stony gaze never once straying from his daughter before he turned around and began to leave the clearing, not doubting for a second that Kurai would follow.

He never would need to doubt that.

"W-wait a moment!"

No. Shut up, shut up, shut up you idiotic boy!

Kisame's shout made Yagura turn his head to glare at the boy's insolence, before giving him a mocking smirk. "Ah, so it speaks."

The young Hoshigaki spluttered for a moment before regaining his bearings. "You can't order Kurai to stop seeing me!"

Kurai almost groaned. How absolutely wonderful the day was turning out to be. And to think, it had started out so well too.

"And why is that?" her Father asked, the same mocking tone to his usually disinterested and well-mannered voice.

"Because you don't have the right!"

This time Kurai did groan. That stupid, stupid boy.

At once, Yagura's face became impassive and when he opened his mouth again, what came out wasn't a mocking voice, but one as cold as the mist that had started making Kurai feel sick.

"I am her Father. I have all the right, your pathetic boy. Come, Kurai. We are leaving." His voice gave no rooms for arguments, and when Yagura started to make his way through the mist, she knew that no matter what Kisame said next, her Father would not stop again.

Kurai closed her eyes, hating herself a bit for what she was about to do.

"I'm sorry, Hoshigaki-san, but I'm afraid that our time together is over. It was a pleasure meeting you. I hope you will find success in your life."

I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

"Sukoshi…"

She didn't look him in the eyes. She didn't care if it was cowardly of her, but she couldn't bear to look at Kisame's shark-like eyes. She couldn't bring herself to see the painful confusion she had inflicted in the dark pools. The feeling of betrayal she had caused him.

"Kurai. Enough. Let's go."

The pink-eyed girl turned and followed her father, never looking back. She wouldn't be able to move on if she looked back.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…

"S-sukoshi! Kurai!"

**I'm sorry…**

**But he is far more important to me than anyone else will ever be.**

**.**

They arrived at the house roughly five minutes later. Yagura opened the door and stepped aside to let her enter first. She did so, with her head lowered to the floor and in complete silence. The door clicked shut behind her and her Father moments later.

"Kurai, look at me" the whispered order of the man in front of her made Kurai glance up.

The slap came as no surprise, and its sting wasn't even as bad as Kurai had predicted it would be, although still painful. Regardless, she gasped a little, not for the pain in her cheek, but for the fact that the slap made its job. It showed Kurai how disappointed and angry Yagura really was with her.

"Do you know why I did this?"

Yes, she did. Kurai nodded, one small hand meekly covering her red cheek.

"He is not your friend Kurai. And even if he was, something I find extremely doubtful, there is no place for friendship in a shinobi's life," her Father's voice was strong in its conviction, and Kurai could only nod in agreement, still unable to curb the shame and sorrow growing inside her.

She saw her Father kneel down in front of her and let him gently remove her hand from her aching cheek. Kurai did not flinch when she felt his warm hand cover the injury, and even leaned into his touch once she felt the soft healing nature of medical chakra.

"One day you will know why I did this. That will be the day you will thank me. Believe me when I say, that friends bring nothing but misery my daughter. Never forget that."

And Kurai could only nod, the memory of Kisame's smile and the sound of his laugh as he called her 'Sukoshi' never once leaving her mind.

**.**

Kisame glared at the dusty mirror in front of him angrily.

"I am her Father. I have all the right, your pathetic boy."

"I'm sorry, Hoshigaki-san, but I'm afraid that our time together is over. It was a pleasure meeting you. I hope you will find success in your life."

She wouldn't even look him in the eyes while she said that. Was he really so insignificant that she wouldn't even give him the benefit of looking at his face while she said goodbye?

"I am her Father."

"I have all the right, your pathetic boy."

"I'm sorry, Hoshigaki-san, but I'm afraid that our time together is over."

Their voices mixed together in Kisame's brain, a cacophony of disdainful sounds that plagued his mind even hours later, since he saw Kurai leave with her father.

Leave him, to follow her father.

He could remember the day he meet her, saved her from drowning in that river, remember her fury at him for mistake her for a boy, and then her peaceful demeanor while she taught him about chakra. All the hours, days, months they spent together, training, jesting, planning and dreaming about the future, when he would no longer be a street rat and she would be the most powerful kunoichi in their village.

All, all of it, shattered because of a man that…

"I am her Father. I have all the right, your pathetic boy."

Kisame remembered when Kurai found him in that alley, broken bones and bleeding cuts, and the care she took with him, nursing him back to health with a gentleness that still made his heart beat tenderly in his chest.

"Sometimes people can be so stupid, can't they?" she asked, still staring at the mirror.

"Yeah. They can be."

His jaw clenched and then the mirror broke under the strength of his fits, blood and glass falling down on the ground.

"You are the stupid one. Stupid, stupid, stupid Sukoshi!" he finally shouted, abandoning any pretence of tranquility.

She left him! After everything…

"I don't need you to tell me you want to become a shinobi Kisame. Your every action is loud and clear enough. You seek the thrill of the battle like a drenched man seeks water to sate his thirst; you crave the surge of your blood running through your veins so fast that you can hear it move in your adrenaline-filled body. You want to fight, was born to do it. Against me or someone else, it doesn't matter. You will become a shinobi, because you can't see yourself as anything else."

Her words were true then, and they were still true now, but…

I wanted to be a shinobi with you. My first friend, my only one.

My little Sukoshi.

Kisame turned away from the broken mirror, hard eyes and mouth in a fine line. He would show that man…

"I have all the right, your pathetic boy."

He would prove to Yagura that Hoshigaki Kisame was, by no means, a pathetic boy.

His bloodied fists clenched at his side and Kisame overlooked the sharp pain like he ignored the pain in his chest.

He would grow strong; so strong that she would never again leave him so easily.

He would not allow her to.

**.**

**.**

A week had passed since the disastrous encounter on the river, and in the mean time Kurai had come to the unpleasant realization that her life was dull without Hoshigaki.

Dull.

How could she have allowed Kisame to be such an integral part of her life that she would actually miss him now that he was gone?!

It was in the middle of the night, well past one in the morning and Kurai couldn't sleep. Yagura was away in another mission and wasn't supposed to come back until after tomorrow, leaving her with a grand total of nothing to do but train, train and train. She had nothing against getting stronger, but even her Father had to admit that a person needed to do something else least they end up going mad. Groaning in her pillow, Kurai rolled around her bed, trying to resist the urge to start tearing at her hair. That's how frustrated she was.

She tried to stop thinking about Kisame, but couldn't seem to succeed. Maybe she should-

Kurai tensed.

The briefest contacts of unknown chakra signatures tickling at the edge of her mind, the almost soundless noise of a widow opening down stairs. There was someone inside her house, and it wasn't her Father.

Intruders.

Slowly, hardly daring to breath, Kurai got up from her bed, careful not to produce any sound that might alert the intruders of her awaken status. She did not want them to know she was awake.

After what seemed like a century, Kurai finally reached the end of the hallway and popped her head to peer at the other corridor. Almost immediately she drew back, face gone ashen-pale.

There were four shinobi inside her house that might, or might not, wish her harm.

Considering that this was Kirigakure, Kurai was leaning towards the first possibility. They were there to wish her or her Father harm.

What was she supposed to do?!

Alright, just take deep breaths. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out.

When Kurai felt considerably calmer than before, she went back to her room where then she opened her wardrobe. In a secret compartment under layers of her usual clothes, she took a kunai pouch already full and strapped it to her waist. Taking some exploding tags her Father had given her in case of an emergency –and it was definitely an emergency!- from the same compartment, Kurai approached her door once more and silently stuck four tags on it, three around the door and one at the center. If someone tried to open that entrance, they would be in for an explosive surprise.

She could hear the ninjas coming closer and hastily moved away from the door, mentally thanking her Father for giving her one of the rooms with a window on it. Sticking another one of her last exploding tags on the window, Kurai jumped, infinitely glad that her house was just two stores high and she could land on her feet with only a very mild pain on the soles of her feet. The small four years old girl took some steps away from her house, counting down the seconds in her head.

One.

Two.

Th-.

Ka-boom!

Fire, smoke and painful yells came from her room and Kurai didn't stop to think.

She turned around and took off towards the forest in a mad dash, all the while hearing the heavy footsteps of the enemy hunting her down.

**.**

Kimi was trying to find some berries around the river outside the village when she saw her. Instantly, the very few berries she managed to find fell to forest ground with a few muffled thuds. Cold sweat broke out on her forehead and she felt her hand tremble. It was her.

Dark locks of hair that framed a young feminine face, big pink pupiless eyes that could stare at the deepest recess of your soul, discovering every dark secret of your life and laugh as she burnt it all in your face.

Shikyo no Mitsukai.

Kimi wanted to scream, but she couldn't even move a muscle.

So she just stood there behind the thin bushes, frozen to do anything else as she watched the girl who had become the newest monster that haunted her nightmares since that day a week ago. Kimi watched as the girl, that once appeared so invincible as she stood over the dead bodies of children of her gang, pant and stagger towards the river with shaking knees. What had happened to her?

Then three other people came out of nowhere and Kimi almost let out the scream building in her throat. One of the men had half of his face burnt, ugly red and boiling skin marring the left side of his face that had lost part of its orange hair.

"You little bitch! You will pay for what you did back there!"

The three men ganged up on the small girl and Kimi watched transfixed as the girl avoided their blows like she was made of water instead of flesh and bones, moving with such fluidity that she was surprised that one of the men –the one with half his face scarred- managed to land a punch to her head. It was a fist so packed with strength that the pink-eyed child was knocked off her feet and landed on a boulder, hitting her head again on the hard surface. The girl slumped on the ground, fainted.

"What now, Nakaba?" she heard one of the shinobi ask.

"Keep up with the damn plan you idiot. We have orders to follow."

Kimi watched with wide eyes as one of the men gathered the unconscious girl on his arms and threw her over his shoulder. Soon, there was only her in the clearing, her and her fallen berries and the small puddles of blood.

Kimi took off in direction of the gang's shack. She needed to tell this to Shingi.

**.**

Literally bumping into Hoshigaki Kisame in the middle of the street was definitely not in Shingi Nakamura's plans. In fact, he did not even expected to find the boy, but thanked his lucky stars that he did. He had information to give to Hoshigaki after all.

"Ho-Hoshigaki-sama!" better to be as respectful as possible, Shingi thought gloomily, if he wanted his head to keep being attached to his neck.

Kisame turned around to stare at the brown-haired boy, recognizing him as the boy that had been spared.

"What do you want Nakamura?" he asked with a growl. It was obvious the shark-boy wasn't in a good mood tonight.

Shingi wondered what the hell Hoshigaki was doing out in the streets so late at night and gulped loudly when he saw the bandages messily applied around his fists, seeing the blood that managed to seep into the fabric. He wondered if the blood was Kisame's or some other poor sap's.

"I-I have information. Information c-concerning Shikyo no Mitsukai."

Hoshigaki only stared at him blankly. It was in that moment that Shingi realized that the shark-boy had no idea who he was talking about. For the thousandth time he cursed the fact that the pink-eyed girl never gave him her name.

"I have information about the pink-eyed girl that was with you that day!"

In less than a second Kisame's face contorted in a sneer. "I don't want to know about some problem Sukoshi wandered in. Her troubles aren't my concern; she made it pretty clear to me last week. Now get out of my way brat."

A part of Shingi wanted to snap at the shark-boy that Kisame was actually younger than him, so he was the brat. However, a bigger part of Shingi whose sole purpose was survival managed to restrain that suicidal wish.

"Wait! You have to listen to me! Kimi saw-"

"What part of 'Her troubles aren't my concern' did your pea-sized brain didn't understand? I don't care about what you have to say. Remember that it was her that saved your life. If it was me, you would be long dead by now. Don't tempt me. Sukoshi is not here to stop me, and even if she was, I would still do it."

With that said, the tall boy sent him one last glare before keep walking down the street.

Shingi didn't know why exactly he didn't got up and went back to the shack. He didn't know why he didn't just forget about what Kimi told him less than ten minutes ago and got back to his life. But he did know that he had a debt to pay and he was going to be damned if he choose to simply ignore it.

As a rule, street rats don't have moral codes. They lived through robbery and trickery, through gang wars and the winter's bitter cold, through hunger and blood. They didn't have room for morality in their lives, much like shinobi's.

But then, Shingi Nakamura wasn't your average street rat.

He got up from the ground where Kisame had pushed him and ran to stay in front of the shark-boy again.

"I don't care about what happened between you and m'lady, and honestly, I don't care enough to know. You were right when you told me that it was because of her that I'm alive right now and because of it I own her my life. I know I'm not strong. I can fight against other normal kid, but not against ninjas. I know that. So you are my only chance to save her. One of the members of my gang saw her being chased by three shinobi, and Kisame, one of them had half his face melted off. Kimi saw they fight her and manage to knock her cold. They kidnapped her Kisame! She was hurt and bleeding and might be dead even while we speak! You need to save her! Please, isn't she your friend?!"

Shingi was panting by the time he was over talking and dread pooled in his stomach. What if he had overstepped his boundaries? Hoshigaki was right, there was no pink-eyed little girl to save him from his wrath now.

"Where?"

The cold voice snapped him away from his thoughts and Shingi stared at the younger boy confusedly. "What?"

Abruptly, Shingi found himself being hold in the air by his throat and his poor lungs cried for the sudden lack of air. He stared at the dark eyes of one Hoshigaki Kisame that now looked more like a hungry shark than before.

"I asked where? Where did this happen?" he asked, shaking him for good measure.

How was it that a boy younger than him could lift him from his feet so easily? Granted, even if Kisame was younger, he was still taller than Shingi himself, but shit, this still shouldn't be possible!

Kisame glowered and Shingi felt the strain in his neck tighten. His face was rapidly becoming purple from the lack of air.

"WHERE DID THIS HAPPEN?!"

"N-near th-the riv-ver! The d-d-deep one clo-closest to the vi-village!" Shingi finally managed to speak through the pressure on his neck.

The next minute he found himself wheezing and coughing on the dirt floor of one of Kiri's vacant streets, with no shark-boy in sight.

And the only think Shingi could think of was:

Damn, he's freaking fast.

**.**

Yagura knew something was wrong before he could even see his house. Maybe it was because of the slight dread he had been feeling for days now, the gut feeling that had urged him to complete the mission as soon as possible and made him sprint back to his house in a mad run that left his teammates bewildered and eating dust behind him.

Or maybe it was the smell of smoke and blood around his property.

Yagura cautiously entered his house, noting that his daughter was not there and that none of his traps were activated while he had been gone. However he could still scent the stink of death on his home. A fight had obviously taken place there, enemies seeking to attack him or someone else was still open to debate. His daughter was missing, probably kidnapped by the intruders, and there was a giant hole in the place where the door to Kurai's room should be. Yagura also found a men's body badly burnt under the debris. By the wounds on the body, it had taken a while for him to die.

Yagura allowed himself to feel a little proud. This was his daughter's handiwork, no doubt about that. She had killed one of the enemies and probably injuried the others badly enough to attempt an escape.

Now, where had Kurai took off to?

And more important yet, did she manage to escape? Was she even alive right now?

Before Yagura could ponder on those thoughts deeper, a noise downstairs caught him attention. He shushined to the hall and held the stranger in a deadlock, ready to snap their neck. Until he realized who he had in his hands.

"You." He sneered, letting the person go and wiping his hands on his trousers, as if the boy held some contagious decease. He wouldn't be surprised if he did.

"Yeah, me." The blue-skinned boy replied, careful not to snap at the older man.

"What are you doing here boy?"

The boy looked awful. His naturally spiky blue hair was disheveled and his forehead was drenched in sweat. His breath came out as short gasp and Yagura could see the boy's knees shaking. The child had been running a long way for some time if he was that tired.

"I-I know where Sukoshi is."

Yagura narrowed his eyes. He did not like the way this insolent and disrespectful brat called his daughter. Hi didn't like it a bit.

"My daughter's name is Kurai, not 'Sukoshi', and you will refrain from calling her that in my hearing range."

The Hoshigaki boy shook his head. "Who cares?! I know where she is and I can take you there. We can save her!"

"And how would a street rat like you know who kidnapped my child?"

"I have contacts."

Yagura raised a brow, amused. "Contacts? And pray tell, who exactly are this contact of yours?"

"Does it matter?! Su-Kurai might be bleeding to death right now while you are here wasting time questioning me! Can't you just trust me to know what I'm doing?"

"Trust? I don't trust anyone, least of all you. Why would you care about the safety of my daughter? Who is she to you?"

"She is my friend!" the boy shouted, glaring at him with dark eyes.

Yagura looked at the boy with something akin to pity in his cold eyes. "There are no friends in Kirigakure and to think otherwise is just an illusion for little boys like yourself to think that they aren't alone in the world. So I will ask again for the last time. What is my daughter to you?"

Hoshigaki locked eyes with him angrily and Yagura had to applaud him for having guts, if nothing else. "She is my friend, but if that answer doesn't satisfy you than I will tell you another truth. She is mine, and I take care of what is mine. Will you help me rescue Kurai or not? I have better things to do than to waste time trying to talk with you."

For a long time, Yagura didn't spoke. Then he offered his hand to a surprised Kisame and told him in the coldest voice the child had ever heard.

"I will give you one chance. One chance. If I discover that you led me the wrong way, I will make sure that you never see the light of the day again. I, too, have contacts of my own. Particularly, in the Torture & Interrogation Unit. Are we clear, boy?"

Still glaring at the child, Yagura saw the fire in the dark pools as the boy heard the challenge in his voice and countered it with his own.

"Crystal. And my name is not boy. I am Hoshigaki Kisame, and don't you forget it."

Yagura gave the child a humorless smile. "Then become important enough for me to remember, boy."

**.**

Kurai woke up with a pounding headache, blindfolded, gagged and with her arms tied behind her back, leaning against a rock. She could vaguely hear voices around her that were close to her spot.

It took some time for her scrambled brain to finally remember what happened to land her in such a situation. When she did, it took all her control not to trash around in her binds. She did not want her captors to know she was awake.

"Hey, Nakaba! How long till the brat wake up?"

"Shut the fuck up Yamaru! The little bitch will wake up when I want her to!"

"With that blow to the head you gave her I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't wake up. How are we supposed to follow our orders-"

"I know exactly what our orders are Yamaru. Now shut your fucking mouth!"

"My, my, you are very snappish tonight, aren't you, Nakaba-san? Was it because you were caught in the explosion the little girl set up? You should consider yourself fortunate. At least you're alive. Poor Hosoi-san, he was always the unlucky one, wasn't he?"

"I don't give a damn about Hosoi, Hatsuri! I just want to get my payment and then get the hell out of water country. That Mizukage hotshot promised that he would let me leave this shitty country without fucking hunter-nins biting at my heels."

"Wait a moment there! Your payment? You meant our payment, right Nakaba-san?"

"Of fucking course Hatsuri! Now could you both keep your goddamned mouths shut?!"

More bickering ensued and Kurai's head was spinning trying to process the information. She latched in the most pressing matter at hand: those men had spoken with the Mizukage. He had promised them payment and a free ticket out of Mizu no Kuni for kidnapping her. Why did he wanted her dead?!

Cold dread seeped into Kurai's bones, as she remembered Kaguya Hiyasu's chilly brown eyes as he looked at her like she was a piece of meat in his office. She hadn't seen him for months, something she was incredible grateful for, but didn't doubt for a second that he probably was behind this. Kurai began to hate the man as much as she feared him.

"Hey, Nakaba! What will you do with the girl when she wakes up?"

Kurai tensed, straining her ears to hear the words spoken around her. At the same time, her hands worked tirelessly to break the knot tying her arms.

"I will make her pay for what she did to me, the shithead. Maybe scar that pretty little face of hers."

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't forget about me! She killed my cousin, ya' know! You're not the only with the right to make her bleed!"

"Don't worry Yamaru-san. You will have plenty of time to exact your revenge. Speaking of it, when was the last time you had a woman, Yamaru-san?"

"Heh? Why the sudden question?"

"You do realize that the kid is a girl, right Yamaru-san?"

Kurai froze, as did her hands. No. **No**.

"… Ah!"

"It took you this long to figure it out Yamaru? Now I know from where Hosoi inherited his stupidity from. It must run in the family."

"Screw you Nakaba! And you too Hatsuri! I'm not going to fuck a toddler that doesn't even know that her pussy serves for more than just peeing! That's just sick, man!"

Yes, Kurai's mind fervently wanted to agree. She's just a child, that's sick. That's so, so sick.

"Well, if you won't, than I certainly will. The bitch deserves it for melting off half of my face. Maybe I will do it before messing her up. Yes, that should do nicely."

"Then tell me before you decide to do it. This is something I do not need to see."

"Then you better get your ass moving Yamaru, because I'm going to wake up this bitch right now to have my fun."

Kurai trembled, her mind drawing blank. She couldn't think. Why couldn't she think? All she could feel was numb terror as she heard the sound of people moving. Two of them were already gone when she felt the third one approach her and rip the blindfold away.

"Ah! Awake, I see. Well, that just makes it easier for me."

Her eyes stared blankly at the man before her. He had orange hair and green eyes and probably was very handsome once. Now thought, the left part of his face was an ugly shade of red with boiling skin and a few missing pieces of flesh that made it possible for Kurai to see the muscle and bone under it.

"Now, see what you and your little explosion tags did with my beautiful face? You are a very naughty girl, and naughty girl must be punished, you hear me?" he said sadistically, moving to take off his pants.

It was then that Kurai realized that she was going to die. She was going to be raped, tortured and then killed because her village's fucking Mizukage ordered those men to do it.

She never felt so much undiluted fear in her life. Not when she saw children being beaten to death in front of her, not when she met Kaguya Hiyasu for the first time, not when she almost drowned in that river before Kisame saved her. Kurai never felt so much mind-numbing terror, not when she had nightmares about death, not when she met Elyse for the first time and fought against her, not when she found Kisame lying half-dead in an alley.

Kisame.

A throbbing pang in her heart. Silly, funny, arrogant and strong Kisame, she would never see him again. She would never get to tell him how important he had become in her life during the mouths they spent together, never get to tell him that a part of her actually liked (only a little bit) when he called her 'Sukoshi', never get to say how sorry she was that she had hurt him when she choose her father over him.

Father.

Another aching pang in her heart, stronger this time.

She would never again see her Father's stern and disapproving expression at her childish antics, or the small up-turning of his lips that was his smile. She would never again hear his neutral and, sometimes, amused voice as he guided her through her taijutsu training or the low sound on the back of his throat that was his laugh, or even his utter exasperation at her barely acceptable chakra control. She would never again watch her Father wander around their kitchen, making delicious meals for them that would make her droll like Kisame did when he smelt shrimp or crab in a restaurant. She would never again feel his warm hand tousling her dark locks or spend time in his cozy little office, listening to him as he told her stories about their and other villages, about shinobi dead and alive who became legends on the battlefield. She would never be able to tell her Father how important he was to her, how much Kurai loved him with all her heart and more.

She would never have the chance to hear him tell her the same.

Kurai finally realized that at last, her arms were free, after many minutes of tugging, pushing and twisting.

The man before her had already taken off his trousers. She could see his erect manhood even in the darkness with such vivid clarity that she thought the sun had already come out. His hand reached for her pants.

Something snapped inside her.

Kurai saw red.

**.**

**.**

Ten minutes later, Izumi Yagura and Hoshigaki Kisame came upon a sight that took them by complete surprise.

A massacre was the site that greeted them when both finally reached the location Kurai was being held hostage.

Blood and gore littered around the forest ground and Kisame winced at the particularly vicious slaughter of one of the men. The man in question had had half of his face melted off and someone had gouged out his eyes. But what really got to the young Hoshigaki was the painful mess that existed where the man's manhood was supposed to be. Someone had hit it with a thick tree branch multiple times until there was nothing in there but a crushed something.

And in the middle of all the carnage, a small four year old girl stood in a puddle of blood, her little body painted red and her back facing them.

"S-sukoshi?" Kisame asked hesitantly.

No response.

"Kurai" Yagura called with a steady voice.

The girl tensed, before slowly turning in her heels.

Kisame gasped in surprise and he saw the way Yagura went absolutely still next to him.

Because looking in the face of one Kurai Izumi, instead of the usual pink pupiless orbs staring back at them, Kisame saw that her eyes had become a terrifying blood-red color with one black tomoe lazily spinning in each eye.

…

**AN: Neh, didn't really like the ending. Oh well, hope you guys liked it enough. Don't forget to review!**


	7. Chapter 7- Brewing and Breaking Tensions

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

**AN: As always, thank you all who reviewed, favorite and followed!**

**A special thanks for SillyBunny88 for betaing my story! Thank you for your effort!**

**And now, I present to you…**

**.**

**Dark Waters**

**Chapter 7 – Brewing and Breaking Tensions**

**.**

She was floating in the darkness once more. Kurai took a moment to wonder why did she always end up floating in the nothingness, before closing her eyes to just enjoy the feeling of warmth and lethargy. She was so tired, so sleepy. She just wanted to turn around and rest. And that was exactly what she did. Kurai, still floating, curled around herself in a small ball, intent in getting the rest she so desperately craved.

It was then that she heard the laughter. An awful, mad and hysteric laughter that sent chills down her spine.

_"An Uchiha?! Oh, this only keeps getting better and better."_

Kurai opened her eyes halfway at the sound, the drowsiness slowly dissipating. What?

_"Did you really think you could get rid of me so easily Ku-ra-i?"_

That mocking voice, the way it purred her name… Impossible.

Elyse? But-

_"I told you. We have shared the same body for years. It will take much more than a simple order for me to leave you."_

What did you call me before? An Uchiha? What is that?

_"That's what you are. The bastard daughter of an Uchiha. No wonder your mommy abandoned you. You would be a disgrace for the clan, conceived outside marriage and by a non-Uchiha, at that. They are a very traditionalist lot, you know."_

What are you talking about, Elyse? Explain!

_"Why should I? You ordered me to go away, didn't you? You can figure it out on your own, I'm sure. Good luck trying to have a kekkei genkai in the Village of the Bloody Mist. You will be dead before you fifth birthday. Maybe your own precious Otou-sama will be the one to kill you. Now, wouldn't that be funny?"_

Elyse! Tell me what's going on! Now!

_"As I said, you can find out on your own. Goodbye, Kurai-chan!"_

ELYSE!

Blood-red eyes snapped open.

**.**

When Kurai woke up, she couldn't see. There was something over her eyes. Panic gripped her heart and she began to struggle around the thick blankets in the soft mattress she had been put, a thousand and one thoughts flying inside her head. What was happening? Where was she? Where were her kidnappers? Why couldn't she see? Why did her head hurt so much?

"Kurai, stop."

She ceased her struggle. Could it be…?

"O-otou-sama?" she asked with a hoarse voice, pitifully confused and hopeful. If her Father was there then she was safe, right?

"You mustn't move Kurai. Your wounds are still healing."

In her state of confusion and near panic, she ignored his order (the shame! She would be properly horrified by her actions had she been of clear mind.) to stay put and attempted to rise from the bed. "O-otou-sama! What-"

"Rest, Kurai. You're still weak. Sleep."

A warm hand placed on her sweating forehead was enough to calm her down. In seconds, Kurai was asleep once again.

**.**

The second time she woke up, she was still wrapped in warm blankets and she could feel the softness of the mattress under her. It wasn't her bed, that much Kurai was able to deduce.

Carefully, her hand closed around the wet clothe over her eyes, pushing it aside. Almost immediately, she hissed and clenched her eyes shut, feeling like a hundred sharp pins were attacking her eyes. Sensing dizziness creeping up to her, Kurai took deep breaths to calm her wildly beating heart.

She tried to open her eyes again, only to feel the same dizziness and pain. What was happening to her? Why did she feel as though her chakra was being sucked out of her every time she opened her eyes?

"Kurai."

She didn't dare open her eyes again, thought the desire was still there. "Otou-sama?"

"I told you not to move," came the mildly reproaching voice.

"I'm sorry, Otou-sama. I wanted to see."

"I know. Did you?"

"Did I what, Otou-sama?"

"Can you see?"

"I don't know. Every time I open my eyes I feel dizzy and tired."

A humming sound at her left side. "I'm not surprised. Keeping a Sharingan activated for so long must be tiring, especially for one as young as you. You fainted right away the first two times you woke up and managed to keep your eyes open for longer than a minute."

Kurai's mind was spinning. She had woken up before now? Two times? Why didn't she remember it?

"What happened, Otou-sama?"

Silence. Then she heard her Father's cautious voice. "What do you remember, daughter?"

"I… I remember trying to sleep, and then sensing unknown chakra signatures inside the house."

"And then?" her Father prodded for more.

"I used the exploding tags to delay them, and ran away. I didn't know what they wanted, or how powerful they were, so I decided to avoid a fight," she added, almost hesitantly.

"A strategic retreat. Good thinking."

She beamed happily at him, before sobering up, as what happened next began to replay on her mind.

"They were four, but one died in the explosion. I think his name was Hosoi," Kurai said quietly, without any discernible emotion in her voice. "The other three followed me. I ran to the river and was able to hold my own against them, but… The leader went behind me. I didn't see the blow coming."

"It's alright," her Father reassured her. "What happened then?"

"I woke up tied and gagged, hearing them speaking about what they would do to me." Kurai's fist clenched at the memory and her breathing sped up. She hoped she was not having a panic attack. It would be so embarrassing if her Father saw it!

"Kurai, what did you hear?" Yagura asked, voice cool and tranquil, that immediately managed to calm her down.

"They wanted to make me pay for the death and injuries I gave them before." No way was she going to tell her Father that one of them was planning to rape her, much less that, for a second, while her mind had ceased to function in her fright, she almost let the man do it.

A thought popped in her head then, something she had almost overlooked amidst all the more… important moments of the night.

"They said something about the Mizukage."

Although she couldn't see her Father, she could feel his eyes drilling holes at her.

"Oh?" he asked carefully. "And what did they said exactly?"

Kurai bit her lip, remembering the words spoken that night.

_"I just want to get my payment and then get the hell out of water country. That Mizukage hotshot promised that he would let me leave this shitty country without fucking hunter-nins biting at my heels"_

"They said that the Mizukage promised them payment, and that he would let them leave water country without the threat of hunter-nins trying to capture them."

Her Father pondered over her words for a few minutes before realizing a sigh. "It seems that he has finally made his first move…" she heard him mutter under his breath, talking more to himself than to Kurai now.

She let her Father to his thoughts. If he wanted her to know, then he would share. Until then, she dares not to pry into his affairs without explicit permission.

Instead, Kurai tried to, once more, remove then clothing over her eyes. Maybe now she would be able to see?

Almost instantly, a larger hand closed against her own. "Don't remove it yet, Kurai."

"Is there something wrong with my eyes, Otou-sama?" she asked him worriedly. Oh Kami, she hadn't gone blind, had she?

"It depends on your views, I would say." Yagura answered enigmatically.

"What do you mean, Otou-sama?"

"Tell me Kurai, what do you remember about Kekkei Genkais?"

The question caught her by surprise, although she didn't let it show on her face. She tried to remember her time spent in her Father's office, hearing him talk about the shinobi world.

It hit her then, and Kurai nodded to her Father. A kekkei genkai, or a bloodline limit, were abilities passed down genetically within specific clans. Their own Mizukage had a kekkei genkai, the Shikotsumyaku from the Kaguya Clan, and was feared for his talent at using it.

She also clearly remembered that her Father wasn't very fond of kekkei genkai-wielders.

"Good. Now then, I have another question for you. Have you ever heard of 'Sharingan'?"

**.**

Things changed.

After her Father explained to her exactly what the Sharingan was and from where it had come from, from who she had received it, he was far colder towards her now.

To an outsider, no one would notice any difference in their interactions, but there were the tattletale signs that showed how her Father saw her now. The always cool and indifferent look he would give Kurai whenever he came to her room to bring food and change her bandages, the spark of anger and bitterness that would flash through his face whenever he took away the cloth over her eyes only to be stared at by blood-red orb, the physical and emotional distance her Father seemed hell-bent on maintaining between them.

It hurt. It hurt so much.

She knew her Father disliked kekkei genkais, but she had never thought that he would, well, not exactly shun her since he still allowed her inside the house and in his life, but… resent her so much for having it.

Now, every time she would attempt to make conversation with her Father, his answers were always short and final, if he even deigned himself to speak at all. She should no longer expect any kind of emotion from Yagura, no matter how small it may be.

It was like he had cut whatever bonds they had managed to create in the months they have been living together.

And it **hurt**. So damn much.

Kurai stood in front of the mirror in her room, the first time she was out of bed since waking up inside her home, two days ago. She was barefooted, wearing her grey pajamas and her short hair fell in small and messy waves around her face, accentuating the delicate features of her features. And, of course, the blood-red of her eyes.

Kurai had not yet discovered how she could deactivate the damn thing. Her Father, for the first and last time, had suggested that she should just stop directing chakra to her eyes, but the problem was, she did not know how. Her chakra control was terrible, and both of them knew it, so she couldn't even attempt to stop the chakra flowing in fear of damaging her fragile, still-developing coils. In the end, her Father only told her that if she wanted to get out of the house in the next decade, then she should learn how to control it, or else kiss her freedom goodbye.

Of course, he hadn't said it that way, but it was implied.

Kurai cocked her head to the side, letting one small lock of hair fall over her right eye, not quite covering it. She was beginning to hate those demon-like eyes. They were the reason her Father was so cold to her now. Why? Why did she have to awaken this damned bloodline, the only thing her mother gave her, when she didn't even bother to give her a name?

Why was she being punished for something she couldn't control? It wasn't fair.

Kurai gave a humorless smile to her reflection. But then, nothing in this world was fair, right?

Sighing, Kurai sat on the cold hard-wood floor in a lotus position, still staring at the mirror, and concentrated in breathing.

In. Out. In. Out. In. Out.

Kurai closed her eyes.

In. Out. In. Out. In. Out.

She opened them. Still have the Sharingan. She closed again.

In. Out. In. Out. In. Out.

Again, she opened them, with the same result. And again and again and again, until Kurai was sweating from the chakra drain and her head dizzy from pain. She felt like crying. No wonder her Father was treating her so coldly. She was pathetic! Couldn't even control her own goddamned kekkei genkai!

An abrupt sob jumped from her throat and she saw tears of blood gather inside her eyes. She would not cry. She would not allow herself to cry because of her own incompetence! She would learn how to control the Sharingan, she would learn how to hide it and how to use it and she _would not cry damnit!_

Another sob, and another, until the red tears fell from her demon-like eyes, creating twin rivers of blood trailing down her pale cheeks. She fainted in front of the mirror, won over by chakra exhaustion and the pure stress of her relationship with her Father falling apart.

Would she never again win his approval?

**.**

Kurai woke up to the sound of someone sitting down next to her mattress. Instantly, she knew that whoever it was, wasn't her Father. Yagura never made any kind of noise when he moved. Little by little, she opened her eyes, expecting to feel the by-now familiar sting in the action.

Her eyes snapped open however, when she felt no kind of pain whatsoever. Had she been staring at mirror, she would have seen that her eyes had lost the eerie blood-red color and returned to their normal pink. As it was, however, she could only guess and pray that she was right in her assumption.

Another noise at her left made Kurai turn, and she found herself face-to-face with a blue-skinned boy with remarkable shark features.

"Kisame."

Said boy glared at her before giving a terse nod. "Kurai."

She almost flinched. Kurai, he said. Not Sukoshi. Kurai.

Well, she figured she deserved it.

"How did you enter here?" Kurai decided to ask after another silence fell over them.

"Through the front door" was the curt answer.

Kurai raised her eyebrow, wary and surprised. "Otou-sama let you in?"

Had she been transported to an alternate universe while sleeping where Kisame and her Father were the best of buddies?

Kisame nodded yes at her question, making himself comfortable on his spot on the ground.

Another awkward silence ensued. Kurai was getting tired of this. Since when did she and Kisame walk around eggshells around each other?

Oh, yes. Since she decided to follow her Father instead of staying friends with Kisame.

Guilt welled up in her chest. She didn't regret for a moment choosing her Father over Kisame, but she did regret causing the shark-boy pain. Kurai never wanted to upset him, strangle him on occasions, yes, sure, but not really hurt him.

"I'm sorry" she finally blurted out, the silence growing too uncomfortable to stand.

Kisame looked at her with his dark eyes, and there was a new wariness in them, something that hadn't been there before, and Kurai realized that she had been the one to put it there.

"It's okay," Kisame finally muttered back.

"No." Kurai said. "It isn't. I shouldn't have left you so abruptly. I should have tried harder to convince Father to let me see you. I should've-"

"But you didn't." Kisame cut her off sharply. "You didn't try, and even if you had, Yagura would still have forbid it."

Kurai looked down at her blankets.

"Look at me Kurai."

Kisame's words, so alike her Father's, made her look up hesitantly, not knowing what to expect from the blue boy. His face was set in stone, an unyielding look in his eyes that reminded her of steel.

"I waited for you, you know. After Yagura found us, at the river, I waited for you to return, certain that you would come back. Certain that, sooner or later, you would sneak out while your dad was busy and tell me that we would still meet there, regardless of what your father said."

Kurai kept quiet, her heart clenching with sadness at the boy's words.

"But you didn't come." Kisame said softly. "I waited and waited, but you didn't appear. It took three days for me to realize that you weren't coming back."

She could imagine it, Kisame, cold and tired, sitting down on the forest ground next to the big boulder four meters away from the river, staring at the mist and squinting his eyes, trying to see her silhouette in the fog. Waiting for her like she had to wait for him almost every day since their meeting months ago.

Another pang of guilt hit her heart hard.

"Do you know what I promised myself on the fourth day, Kurai?"

"What?" she asked, her voice almost non-existent.

"That I would grow strong. So strong, that no one would ever dictate my life again. So powerful, that no one, not your Father, not you, would ignore me so easily once more."

Her breath hitched. "Will you ever forgive me?"

She didn't deserve his forgiveness. But that knowledge didn't stop her from asking for it anyways.

"I just want to ask you one thing. Just answer me this one thing and I will tell you if I can forgive you."

She stared at him, urging him to ask what was plaguing his mind.

"If I hadn't come to rescue you, if you had never needed me to help save you from those men… Would you ever have come back to me?"

Kurai didn't need to think over his question. Her answer was as immediate as it was resolute.

"No."

Kisame started, surprise showing clearly on his scarred face. She supposed he had been expecting her to say yes. If Kurai had wanted to spare his feeling, then yes, she would have told him what he wanted to hear.

But if there was one thing she learned about Kisame in the time they had spent together, was that the boy absolutely hated liars with a burning passion. _No_, Kurai decided then and there. _I will never lie to him_.

The shark-like boy had come to mean too much for her to lie to him, even if it was to spare his feelings. He deserved to hear the truth, if nothing else.

Kisame looked shocked at her answer before his face darkened with flashes of anger, betrayal, sorrow and finally, acceptance. He raised his dark eyes to meet hers.

"Thank you."

Kurai stared at him, wide-eyed. "Why are you thanking me?" shouldn't he be furious with her? Shouldn't he be cursing and yelling at her, hell, even try to punch her?

Kisame's eyes were staring at her face, steady and full of conviction. "For not lying to me."

He then stood up to his full height, nodded his head in her direction, gave his best wishes for her quick recovery, and left.

Just up and left. Their talk didn't even last more than ten minutes.

But, strangely enough, Kurai knew that there was still hope for them. No matter how tiny it was.

**.**

Like Kurai thought he would, Kisame came back every day. She would wake up in her mattress and the boy would be there, grinning and shouting "Good morning!" in her ears if she took too long to acknowledge him.

Normally, Kisame would leave and come back with their food, breakfast, lunch and dinner. They would eat together and talk about everything and nothing. Sometimes they would simply stay in silence, enjoying the rare moment of peace and quiet between their banters.

Kurai did not miss the fact that she rarely, if ever, saw her Father again. He was avoiding her, and using Kisame as the perfect distraction.

And distract her he did, with his incessant chatter and sheer stubbornness to keep her mind out of the matter concerning her Father.

After that first day, they didn't talk about the River Incident (as Kurai thought of in her mind) again. They didn't talk about her kidnapping or about her father's absence. They did not even talk about her red eyes. In fact Kurai wondered if Kisame knew about them at all, or if he thought he had been imagining it or dismissed it as a trick of the light. He never questioned her, and she never brought it up.

However, there was always an underlining tension in their talks, a wall that seemed to have risen between the two of them. Their relationship had taken a heavy blow in its core, and changes had made themselves known. Kisame never stopped looking at her with wary eyes and Kurai herself didn't know how to act around the boy now. He had forgiven her, yes, but he had not forgotten and neither did Kurai. How could he have forgiven her for abandoning him? Why would he forgive her?

Despite the consequences of their action, Kisame and Kurai still remained together, trying to rekindle their friendship, and after almost two weeks of bed rest, the boy stormed inside her room and proudly announced that she was free to get out of the house. She was happy, but even Kisame noticed the sad look she gave in the direction of her father's office.

He had ordered Kisame to tell her that she could leave. He didn't even bother to come and give her the news himself.

May Kami bless Kisame's soul though, for he spent the entire day trying to get her to laugh. He gave her a tour through the more populated areas of Kiri, where fancy (and expensive) restaurants, shops, whorehouses and bars were located, and some of Kiri's few festivals were held. The air around those parts of the village was almost (dare she say it)… light, content even, without the constant feeling of fear, poverty and paranoia that surrounded the rest of their home, although still shrouded by their home's mist.

It was in those parts of Kiri, that Kurai saw Shingi Nakamura for the first time after weeks. The brown-haired boy was looking well for a street rat, and even though he still was underweight by normal standard, he seemed to have gained a few pounds since the last time they meet. The moment their eyes met across the streets, Shingi gasped and hurriedly made his way over to them, with a pair of dark-haired twins –one boy and one girl- following closely behind, though the girl looked very reluctant.

"Kisame-sama! My Lady!" Shingi whispered, keeping his voice low enough that no one save for the five of them would hear it.

Kurai cocked her head to the side and looked at him, amused. "You are still calling me 'My Lady'? I thought it had been a slip of your tongue, but it seems that you meant every word, hn?"

The older boy blushed crimson at her words and the green-eyed girl behind him sent furtive glares in her direction, as if too afraid of Kurai to glare at her out right, but angry enough to try.

It amused Kurai greatly, and by the chuckle at her side, so did Kisame.

"How have you been, Shingi-kun? Have you kept your part of our deal?" her voice was light. The words spoken were not.

Shingi gulped, his golden-brown eyes shifting between her and Kisame.

"Y-yes, m'lady. Every child living in the streets or in orphanages know about… about you and Kisame-sama."

"Oh?" she inquired curiously. "And what are they whispering about us?"

Besides her, Kisame laughed, a loud sound that drew the attention of adults walking nearby, who quickly went back to their business when they realized that it was only a group of kids.

Nakamura sent a cautious look in Kisame's direction. "Has Kisame-sama not told you?"

"Kisame and I have been busy these past few weeks."

"Yes." Shingi gave her a speculative look. "I heard about it."

"They are calling Kisame 'Kirigakure no Kaijin' and you have become Kiri's 'Shikyo no Mitsukai'"

Kurai stared at him, surprised. They have given them nicknames? It had turned out better than she had hoped it would.

"Well, it seems like you did a great job, Shingi-kun! Great job, indeed!" she praised him, her mind already working out how she could use this new development in her and Kisame's favor.

"Are you alright, m'lady?"

She looked up, surprised at the Nakamura boy's question, before smoothing out her face and giving him a beaming smile. "Of course I'm fine! Thank you for your worry, but it's not necessary. Thanks to Shark-boy here I'm completely recovered!" she said, elbowing Kisame's side and smirking evilly when she heard him yelp.

"O-oh." Shingi said, staring at them. "Well then, I'm glad. May both of you continue to have good health, m'lady, Kisame-sama."

"Don't worry." Kisame smirked, showing off sharp teeth and making the three children in front of them take a step back. "We will be fine."

Shingi nodded and quickly made his way back into the crowd. Before he could disappear in the throng of people however, Kurai called him.

"I didn't have the chance to give you my name did I? I am called Izumi Kurai" she smiled at him. "You can call me that if you want, Shingi-kun."

Shingi nodded again, a tiny smile fleeing through his face, before bowing at her and Kisame and melting into the mass of people walking around the street.

"I like him." Kurai told her companion suddenly, after cleaning the plate of their last dango.

Both of them were sitting in a booth at a slightly run-down dango shop. Kisame had bought a plate with four of the sweet treat with some of the money he had collected (read: stolen) during their time apart. After the first bite, Kurai had discovered she had quite the sweet-tooth, and had found her new favorite type of food. She did not notice Kisame zealously committing the knowledge to his sharp mind, now knowing that if he ever needed to convince her to do (or forget) something, all he needed to do was to buy a big plate of dango and she would be putty on his blue hands.

She heard him growl at her side. "Why?"

"Because he is honest. You don't find many street rats like him."

"There's nothing special about him!" Kisame said crossing his arms, the picture of a little boy sulking.

"I beg to differ, my friend. He is quite special."

"Why?!" Kisame demanded.

She turned to look at him, a tiny knowing smile in her mouth. "Because he is honest, like you are. That is why he's special. Because he reminds me a bit of you."

Kisame stared at her speechlessly, dark eyes searching her face for any trace of deceit. He found none.

And then he grinned, like he used to grin when their meetings at the river were still their most precious guarded secret, with his dark eyes closed, the scars under them showing off clearly against his blue skin and a warm and carefree smile on his face.

"I didn't know you could be this romantic Sukoshi. Hey, hey, does that mean that this is a date?"

Kurai choked on her water, coughing madly. "_What_?! What did you say?!"

Kisame laughed at her, a sound that she had missed dearly for weeks now. "What is that? Is Sukoshi blushing? Don't be embarrassed, dear Sukoshi of mine. I won't tell a soul about you fancying me."

She spluttered, spilling water across the table. "Fancying you? _Fancying you?!_ I feel sorry for the girl that will have to stand your mindless babble and inane sense of humor. I pity the poor girl that will have to stand seeing your disgraceful behavior and unwarranted arrogance everyday!"

Kisame looked at her innocently. "Then, you pity yourself?"

**.**

Two blokes away from the dango shop, a trio of street children stopped dead on their tracks when they heard an enraged and high-pitched female scream some streets away from them. As one, they turned around to face the direction from which had come the infuriated cry.

"What was that?" Kimi asked worriedly, clutching her older brother's arms.

"I don't know. Leader? What do you think? Should we go investigate?" Takeshi asked, turning his green eyes to his gang's new leader.

Shingi Nakamura, that had been quietly looking at the direction the scream had come from, shook his head resolutely.

"I have a feeling we don't want to know what that was about" he told his younger friends sagely. "Let's get back to the base. We will have a feast to commemorate you and Kimi's birthday"

Takeshi nodded seriously, following behind his friend and leader, his younger sister Kimi blushing a bright red at Shingi's words.

**.**

"You're really good at this, ya know."

Pink pupiless eyes peered from under black curls to stare at the shark-looking boy and give a short nod in acknowledgement, before returning their gaze to the piece of clothes that was currently the center of their attention. The small hands of a child worked quickly over the black shirt, silver needles flashing under the stubborn sunlight that actually managed to break through the mist every once in a blue moon, sewing and fixing the little holes and numerous tears on the old rough fabric.

"No, really. You are very good." A shirtless six years old boy with blue skin and hair insisted, sitting cross-legged in the forest ground across from the younger girl, black eyes avidly following every movement of her hands as she worked over his cloth.

"You already said that Kisame-san," came the bored reply he was waiting for.

Huffing, Kisame scowled a little, put out by the fact that the girl sounded as lively as the rocks surrounding them around the river.

"Stop huffing Kisame-san. This is your entire fault. If you had not run away and instead taken your punishment like a man, you would not have run into a kennel in the cats section and the poor dears wouldn't have confused you with an overgrown super-sushi."

Kisame scowled even more at the reminder, absent-mindedly scratching at the claw cuts those little demons had given him. He really, really hated cats. How his Sukoshi could call them 'the poor dears' was a mystery he had no intention of trying to solve. He had a feeling he wouldn't like the answer.

And she was still calling him 'Kisame-san', since his joke about them dating each other. Eesh, girls were so boring. They couldn't even take a little joke. Maybe it was time to spice things up a little bit?

With a mischievous smirk growing on his scratched raw face, Kisame put his arms on the back of his head, looking for all the world as uninterested as the child sitting next to him. "Still, I'm kind of surprised. I never pegged you as the type of girl that would stay at home and learn how to sew. Tell me, are you learning how to cook and keep the house clean to become a good little housewife one day, Sukoshi?"

The hands holding the needles abruptly stopped their work and Kisame had to throw himself out of the way in the next second, when those same sharp sewing utensils were launched at him like they were kunai.

"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU, HOSHIGAKI?! STOP CALLING ME LITTLE!"

The girl's enraged shout only earned an amusedly screamed "Never!" back.

Things between them would never be the same again, but they were still Kurai and Kisame, and they would stay together, chasing after an unknown future while helping each other along the way.

…

**AN: Did you guys like it? What do you think about Kisame and Kurai's re-encounter? Yagura's reaction to the Sharingan? Does anyone can guess who Kurai's mother is? Tell me your thoughts in your REVIEWS!**


	8. Chapter 8 - Academy (Early Days)

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

**AN: See notes at the end of this chapter.**

**.**

**.**

**Dark Waters**

**Chapter 8 – Academy (Early Days)**

**.**

**.**

It was two days before her fifth birthday that her Father spoke to her again.

Kurai had been putting on her sandals, ready to meet Kisame at the dango shop they had visited some weeks ago, when Yagura came from the kitchen carrying a steaming-hot cup of tea.

"Otou-sama" she had greeted and bowed to him like he had taught her, not really expecting an answer back.

So she was delightfully surprised when her Father spoke.

"I have important news, Kurai" he told her, placing the cup on a near table. "I have enrolled you in the Academy. Your first day will begin three days from now."

Kurai nodded solemnly, her face a stoic mask, though inside she was almost giddy in excitement. This was her chance to prove to her Father that she wasn't useless! "I understand, Otou-sama. I shall do my best."

Her Father watched her with veiled pink eyes and his face gave nothing of his thoughts or emotions. "I surely hope you will. I have invested in your training far too much for you to fail me now."

With that, Yagura turned back to the kitchen, taking his hot cup of tea with him. Kurai finished putting on her sandals and almost skipped down the streets, so eager was she to tell Kisame the excellent news. She had a feeling today was going to be a very good day.

**.**

Today was _not_ a good day.

Kurai resisted the urge to hit her head against the table. No matter how tempting it was, her Father had taught her to always be polite, in or outside their house. She doubted that slamming her head against a piece of wood could be considered well-mannered, much less civil.

Still, the action held its appeal. She just seriously wanted to hit something. Preferably, a certain blue-skinned, shark-like boy named Hoshigaki Kisame that was half an hour late.

Again.

She glowered darkly to the closed shop in front of her. Kurai had arrived just when they closed the doors and one of the workers told her that the shop's owner, that just so happened to be their chief cook as well, had called in sick alongside his son, who was also a cook, and since there was no one else that knew how to make the sweets like their boss and his son did, they had decided to take the day off.

So now, Kurai stood near the closed shop waiting for her tardy friend with nothing to distract herself with, not even her precious dango!

Unforgivable!

Oh, she was so going to kill Kisame for making her wait for his lazy ass.

"Sukoshi! Help me!"

_Speak of the devil and he shall appear,_ she thought. Turning, Kurai had to hurriedly leap out of the way to avoid being flattened into the ground by a seven-year old shark-boy being chased by a massive bandaged _thing_ that appeared to be grinning and salivating.

Wait, what? There was something extremely wrong in that sentence.

Kurai blinked her huge pink eyes three times to convince herself that what she was seeing was not a genjutsu. It wasn't, and she even tried whispering "Kai" to be sure. Had she hit her head on the table after all, and was now with a concussion? Maybe her brain had been damaged? Had she fallen asleep while waiting for Hoshigaki and was now dreaming?!

But no, it wasn't her mind playing tricks on her, no matter how much she wished it was. Kisame _really_ _was_ jumping on top of the dango shop's outside tables, doing some kind of Macarena dance in the air to avoid the advances of an enormous… thing (was that a _sword_?!) that seemed to have a life of its own and appeared hell-bent on devouring the boy.

Was that _droll_ coming out of its mouth? Was that a _mouth_?!

"Kisame…" she was at a loss of words. Just when she though nothing stranger could happen in her life, Kisame had to come and prove her wrong. Again. Why did Kurai have the horrible sensation that he was going to make a habit out of it?

A shiver ran down her spine. Let's hope it was only her body's reaction to the cold mist, and not an ill-fated omen of her near future.

"Sukoshi, you have to help me! It won't stop following me around! It wants to eat me!" Kisame yelped, making a rather impressive somersault in the air in order to dodge another one of the strange thing's attempt at biting him.

Kurai finally snapped out of her shocked staring and quickly composed herself, not wasting any time to scowl at the panicking boy. "What is the meaning of this Kisame? From where in all the elemental countries did you find that… Thing?" she refused to call it a sword. She had seen swords before, and the bandaged thing currently chasing Kisame between tables like an overexcited puppy chasing at its master, was definitely not one.

"I didn't found it! It came at me from nowhere!"

Kurai was just about to open her mouth and give the Hoshigaki boy a sarcastic answer when the 'Thing' jumped in the air at the same time as Kisame did, toppling both of them into the ground and managing to break many old tables and frail chairs in the process (she didn't even want to think who was going to pay for that. Not her, certainly). The young girl watched, stunned, as her friend was brought down to the floor with a pained groan and was immediately pounced on by a squirming and bouncing bandaged 'Thing' – it was definitely not a sword!-, that was whining for something, acting like a cat purring for attention.

Kurai was only brought out of her shocked staring when Kisame shouted at her. "Get this thing out of me!"

Hurrying, Kurai grabbed the nearest object that could be used as a weapon – what was once the leg of a now destroyed chair – and, lifting it high over her head, brought it back down with all her might.

The 'Thing' let out a loud whine when it was hit by the chair leg, before snarling and turning towards her. If 'It' had eyes, they would probably be glaring angrily at her by now.

"Get off of him," she said in a steady voice, trying to mimic Yagura's speech, all the while stubbornly ignoring the voice in her head that sounded suspiciously like her Father, telling her that she was talking with what was supposed to be an inanimate object.

'It' growled at her again, obstinately refusing to move away from the spot over Kisame's chest. The boy's face was slowly turning purple from the heavy weight settled upon the majority of his body and Kurai was seriously wondering if she should feel concerned about the possibility of Kisame dying by suffocation.

She quickly tried to think up a plan to save Kisame but came up with nothing worthy trying. The 'Thing' was too heavy to lift or even try to shift, especially if 'It' didn't want to move in the first place. She had no doubts that the 'Thing' would attack her if she tried to grab it; and honestly speaking, Kurai had no intensions of even coming a few more steps closer to it. There was something wrong with 'It' (other than the obvious) and she had an uneasy feeling in her gut when she looked at the white bandages. What could be beneath those? She had no desire to find out. Some things, she had learned, were best kept under wraps, both figuratively and literally speaking.

Okay, time for a change of tactics.

"Come on, sweetheart" Kurai cooed softly, ignoring the bewildered look Kisame sent her from beneath the 'Thing's weight. "You don't really want to stand near that nasty boy, do you? Just look at him, all filthy and scruffy-looking, who knows when was the last time he bathed!" she moaned in despair, dramatically clutching a hand over her heart.

By now Kisame wasn't even trying to struggle against the 'Thing' anymore. He was too busy looking at her like she had grow a second head – a very ugly one by that matter.

Kurai continued. "I mean, look at him! He's so filthy, he turned blue!"

Now Kisame stared at her as if she had started speaking another language and Kurai had to admit to herself that even to her, her words didn't make much sense. Then Kisame began struggling against 'It' again, but this time, it seemed that he wanted to be free just so he could throttle her himself, if the furious look on his face was anything to go by.

Yeah, after saving him, Kurai would keep her distance for a little while. Just to avoid any unnecessary troubles.

The 'Thing' was looking at her (or what Kurai assumed was 'It's equivalent of looking) with an almost… considering air around it. As if 'It' could understand the words she spoke and had the necessary mental facilities to process and comprehend them.

Kurai really shouldn't be surprised that 'It' could understand her, considering that the 'Thing' could move around on its own will, apparently could feel and express emotions like anger and joy (because 'It' certainly looked pretty excited to chase after Kisame) and had more chakra than she and her friend combined.

Yeah, she really shouldn't be surprised.

Slowly, oh so very slowly, the 'Thing' wiggled out of Kisame's chest, who started heaving and coughing almost immediately, trying to gather enough air to his oxygen-starved lungs.

Kurai would have let out a relieved sigh, had 'Thing' not come to her instead.

She yelped, ducking out of the way when 'It' came 'running' after her only to fall short when she bumped in what appeared to be a brick wall. A very painful brick wall.

"My apologies for Samehada, I'm afraid that my sword can be very unpredictable sometimes."

The girl stilled on her spot on the cold ground, as did Kisame, when she heard the voice in front of her. She hadn't sensed anyone; the street had been completely empty save for her, Kisame and the 'Thing' not moments ago! How did she not hear someone approaching them? She couldn't possibly be that careless, could she?!

Kisame was staring at the newcomer standing in front of her with wide dark eyes, mouth dropping a little, and Kurai knew that whoever it was before her, was a shinobi. At least high chunnin to low-jonnin level, if he managed to mask his chakra so well from her. Tensing her muscles and readying herself to make the signal to Kisame to run if (when) things got ugly, she slowly turned her head up to look at the person that has been observing them for minute now.

The first thing Kurai noticed was that the man was by far the tallest and largest person she had met so far in her short life, which wasn't saying much since she had yet to meet someone who was smaller than her who wasn't a toddler. He had small round eyes and, much like Kisame, sharp jagged teeth. Long, orange hair reached to his back with some pinned up at the top and six green stripes decorated his face. He was wearing a striped jumpsuit of Kiri, with a black outfit over it, covered by a white cloak and a large belt decorated by a tassel strapped to his back. A Kirigakure headband stood proudly on his forehead.

Mentally, Kurai weighted the chances of her and Kisame surviving a fight against the giant of a man standing in front of them. She did not like those odds.

She saw the man stiffen when he had a good look at her face and the surprise flying through his eyes. Did he know her? She was certain she had never met him before.

"Now, look at this. You are Yagura's brat, aren't you? Have to say, I'm surprised to see you here. I thought he would keep you inside the tomb he calls his house until you made gennin at least."

_You have no idea how close he came to do just that_, a cynical part of her wanted to snap at the man who talked to her with such familiarity.

"Excuse me, shinobi-san, but who are you?" Kurai asked instead, tone polite, just like her Father taught her.

He stared at her amusedly for a moment or two before tipping his head in greeting. "My name is Fuguki Suikazan, wilder of the Great Sword Samehada and part of Kirigakure's legendary Seven Swordsmen of the Mist."

From behind her, Kurai heard Kisame gasp and her own eyes widened a bit. Her Father had told her about the Seven, telling her that all of them were Kiri's finest and most powerful swordsmen and how great an honor it was to be part of their elite group. She never thought that she would get to meet one of them in the flesh, at least not for many years to come.

"If you don't mind me asking, Suikazan-sama, what are you doing here with… Samehada?" Kurai struggled to say the name. It tasted strange on her tongue after naming it the "Thing" in her mind so much.

"I heard rumors. They said there is a boy around here that has the talent that we from the Seven Swordsmen are looking for."

Kisame, who had picked himself off the floor mid-way through Kurai's question, glowed at the praise given by the older man. The boy was clearly overjoyed to have taken the attention of one shinobi as strong and famous as Fuguki Suikazan, if the awed look on his dark eyes were any indication.

"I see." She retorted neutrally, throwing sidelong glances at Kisame standing next to her that had yet to wrench his eyes away from the ninja in front of him. "And did you find that boy?"

Suikazan stared at her with an undecipherable look in his eyes before smirking. The man raised his hand and Kurai tensed, thinking an attack, only to stare dumbfounded alongside Kisame when the Thin- she meant, _Samehada_, gave a last nudge against the blue-skinned boy (that almost made him tumble down with it's force), seeming reluctant to part with him, before coming wringing and whining back to its master.

"Yes." The swordsman says, when Samehada was returned to the belt strapped over his back. "I do believe that I found him."

And as Fuguki Suikazan looks at Kisame with an evaluating eye, Kurai allows herself a tiny smile. She would have to properly thank Shingi later on for doing such a good job.

Kisame always said that he wanted a sword anyway.

**.**

**.**

Kurai wakes up three days later, tired but happy, and when she sees the calendar hanging on the fridge, she forgets her fatigue and excitement fills her instead. Today she's going to the Academy. Today is the first step she takes to become a real shinobi.

Her Father is waiting for her in the door, ready to show her the way to the school and Kurai can't help but hope that the gesture means more than what probably does. That it may mean he forgives her for the Sharingan, and that maybe, only maybe, he may still be willing to _care_.

It's a fool's wish, she knows. But Kurai can't help but hope either way.

They walk down the streets of Kiri in silence, past the dango shops and other restaurants, past the market and Shingi's base. The silence is uncomfortable and stuffy, but it's more than she had expected, and it fills her with even more optimism.

Maybe. Just maybe.

**.**

Children of all age were running around, squealing and talking so loudly it made Kurai's head hurt with all the noise. She despaired when she saw that many of those wild kids were older than her, appearing to be seven, eight and even nine years old, even older than Kisame. Shouldn't they be acting with a little more maturity than this? Rolling her eyes in silent frustration, Kurai watched the mass of people, looking for a particular head of spiky blue hair.

Her shoulders dropped in slight disappointment when no head of unruly dark blue hair appeared on her line of vision.

Kurai looked around the place again, noting with some curiosity that there were no families expressing pride at their children's first steps into the shinobi world. Of course, she didn't expect a grand party to occur; this is Kirigakure after all, but still. There were no words of encouragement or reassurance. No comforting touches or tearful praises. There was no speech of honor to the village or about courage, strength and loyalty from their Mizukage, who didn't bother to show up at the opening ceremony (thank Kami). There were only grim-faced parents with hard eyes that looked at the cheerful children as if today was their funeral day.

She didn't know at the time, couldn't know, but for many of the gathered children playing about without a care in the world, that day was but the beginning of their burial.

After her Father made sure that she understood that Kurai was to go back home the minute class was over ("I mean it Kurai. You will go straight home. Nothing of dallying all day on a river rolling around with… *add here a grimace* that _boy_."), Yagura vanished in the quickly dispersing crowd of adults and the girl turned to enter the Academy with the other children being herded in by one of the teaches. The old chunnin that seemed to be in his late forties led them to classroom A-3, where there the students made themselves comfortable in their seats, staying close to their friends and relatives.

Kurai took a look around the classroom, making sure to take note of any child that might prove interesting later on, when a shout sounded behind her and a blue blur ran through the door. Everyone stopped talking to stare at the kid who had just invaded the class.

"Sorry, sorry! Am I late? Am I? Sorry!"

Kurai's palm met her face, a whine of exasperation slipping through her mouth. She really should have expected this.

Before the chunnin could comment on his abrupt appearance, Kisame dashed past him to her side, shoving away any poor unfortunate kid that was unlucky enough to stay in the way. "Sukoshi!"

"Kisame."

"Thank Kami I found you. I was beginning to think that you had bailed out on me!"

A throat clearing drew their attention and they looked up to find their new chunnin sensei glaring down at them.

"Hai, sensei?"Kurai asked politely. No need to be rude on her first day.

"Who is your…. Friend, Kurai-san?" he said 'friend' as others would say trash.

Pink eyes narrowed at the insult and she felt more than saw Kisame glowering at the man standing next to their table, before smiling brightly up at their instructor.

"He's name is Hoshigaki Kisame. You know, the boy that caught the attention of Fuguki Suikazan-sama?"

The man paled a bit at that, before throwing a nervous glance at a smirking Kisame, who had made himself comfortable on the chair next to her own, hands clasped behind his head and a smug look on his dark eyes.

"Ah… I see. Suikazan-sama, uh? Oh well, in that case-" he turned towards the classroom that had already started whispering among themselves and pointing at them. "Class" My name is Hayamoto Kishi, but you can call me Hayamoto-sensei! Now, all of you will be given a written test so that we can evaluate your progress and…"

She turned him down halfway through the explanation before turning to Kisame and whispered "Why were you late?"

Kisame, who was already sprawled over the desk, lifted his head to answer her. "That Fuguki guy was talking with the administrators about letting me in even though no one had enrolled me and I had no money to pay for the materials." Then the boy scowled darkly. "He said I will have to return to the Orphanage so that I can continue in the Academy."

Kurai huffed at Kisame's explanation. "That 'Fuguki guy' is the man that's going to sponsor your education so that you might graduate. Show more respect," she lectured him.

Kisame waved a hand dismissively. "Whatever. If he's going to pay for me to stay here, than he could have let me rent an apartment couldn't him?"

She rolled her eyes at that. "He's not going to give you an apartment Kisame. He will only invest his time and more of his money on you if you prove not to be a waste of effort. You will need to excel in every subject if you want him to tutor you."

"Who said I want him to tutor me?" he asked, annoyed at her lack of concern over his plight.

"You puppy-dog eyes when he led you to a weapon store and showed rows upon rows of swords to you, promising to buy a bokken and start teaching you kenjutsu" she deadpanned.

He looked away with a pout.

Then Hayamoto-sensei distributed the tests among the class.

A though crosses Kurai's mind. She turns to him.

"Kisame. Do you know how to read?"

His deafening silence was answer enough.

Kurai let out a sigh. This test was going to take more time than she had thought.

**.**

**.**

"What is the meaning of this Kurai?"

The simple question made her cringe inside, but she managed to keep a stoic face in front of her Father. Next to her, Kisame fidgeted nervously, his eyes warily regarding the grey-haired man blocking the door in front of them with mistrust and clear dislike.

"I am going to teach Kisame how to read Otou-sama."

Silence followed her bold declaration.

"Very well. You have two hours. After that, come to the dojo. If you want to waste your time this way, go ahead. But it will not interfere with your training." His words were final as he moved away from the door and back inside their house.

Relieved, Kurai nodded emphatically to her Father's back, even thought he could not see it, and pushed Kisame inside, already telling him to go fetch paper, ink bottles and brushes.

**.**

They were supposed to be studying. She was supposed to be teaching him how to read. She wanted to do that. Truly, she did. But Kisame really wasn't the type to sit still for more than ten minutes. Their impromptus nap time, however, was something none of them had wished for. It just sort of happened.

Kisame was still learning and was eager to show Kurai the few words and sentences he knew how to write, even if he didn't exactly know their meaning. That's why he's studying in the first place, right? And if they were in any way or form… offensive… it wasn't his fault! He only showed her what some drunkards had taught him some times. And Kurai didn't mean to hit Kisame in the head with so much strength. She was horrible with chakra control after all, it was a slip, she underestimated her strength and Kisame was now lying motionless on the table. And if she slipped in a puddle of ink while trying to re-animate the boy and ended up hitting her head on the side of the desk… Well, it really was all just an unfortunate accident.

**.**

Two hours later, Yagura found the two of them asleep, with Kisame sprawled over a low desk in Kurai's room, and Kurai herself lying on the floor a few centimeters away from him, both covered with ink from head to toe. Papers scattered across the floor, littered with doodles and blotches of black ink Yagura later figured out were supposed to be words. Rather offensive words at that. He stared at them for a second before going downstairs.

Yagura returned, carrying a bucketful of cold water before unceremoniously dumping all of it over the two young children, who woke with shouts of surprise and fright, looking around wildly for some kind of threat.

And if someone ever saw the way Yagura's lips curled up slightly at the sight of his daughter and her friend shivering like soaked wet kittens in the rain, then it was only a trick of the light.

Or as his daughter had told him later on that day, just a small unfortunate accident.

…

**AN: Hey, guys, it's been some time huh? Sorry, life is getting busy over here. I suspect this will be the last update for some time since I'm afraid I have to prepare to some school exams. As an apology, I promise that the next time will be a double update. Anyway, how do you like it so far? Enjoying the shenanigans Kurai and Kisame get into? Hope you do, because the next two chapters will focus on their timer at the Academy, and there will be plenty of mischief for those two. And maybe for a few more characters along the way…**

**Also, I'm opening a contest here. I'm looking for a cover for Dark Waters, and if any of you are artists and can spare the time, please, draw up something for this story (because I certainly cannot draw to save my life)! The only requirements that I have is that Kurai, Kisame and Yagura appear on it. They don't need to make a full body display, but still enough that anyone can easily identify them. The winner gets to request a one-shot of Dark Waters (concerning any character you want and about anything) or a preview of the other Naruto stories I'm creating and going to post once Dark Waters is already half-way done. Just send me the link to your art and, hopefully, by the next time I update, I will have a winner!**

**Ja ne!**

**And don't forget to review!**


	9. Chapter 9 - Academy (Middle Days)

**Dark Waters**

**Chapter 9 – Academy (Middle Days)**

**.**

**.**

Their first two weeks in the Academy went by the same way it had gone on their first day; doing more tests to see where the children's level were up to. The ones that had demonstrated a higher than usual academic intelligence and/or ninja skills were moved up with the older children that were already on their second to fourth year in the Academy.

She and Kisame were among this group.

Even though Kisame was still struggling to learn his letters, his exceptional strength and endurance for his age, as well as the fact it had become known that he was the boy who had caught the attention of Fuguki Suikazan, earned him a solid place within the third year class, together with Kurai, who manage to hog a spot for herself after acing more than half of the written tests and winning all her sparring matches against the other girls, which really was no great feat since it seemed all the girls in her class only were there to gossip about the 'cool boys' and dress up as 'stylish kunoichi'. Kurai was left to wonder what was wrong with those girls.

But alas, she digressed. What was important was that now, both Kurai and Kisame were standing in front of class 3-B, waiting to see who was going to be the one to knock first.

After an intense staring match from whom neither was willing to back down from, the door suddenly was flung open, making them yelp and jump back, staring as an old woman with mud-colored eyes and purple hair streaked with grey stood before them. She smiled (if it could be called that) and Kurai dearly wished she hadn't, because now she could see a mouthful of crooked and yellowed teeth, some of which were missing. All in all, she looked like someone who should have been locked up in the asylum a long time

"Ah, you two must be Izumi-san and Hoshigaki-san, right?" the Old Lady (as Kurai resolved to dub the woman) asked.

"H-hai, ma'am," at her side, she could see from the corner of her eyes the slight grimace the boy gave when he saw the woman's mouth.

"Ah well, what are you waiting for? Come in, come in. Everyone in class 3-B are eager to meet you" Old Lady grabbed them by their arms as with afraid they would bolt away at any second and dragged them inside, only letting her (surprisingly strong) grip go when all three were standing in front of Class 3-B.

_Well, they certainly look excited_, Kurai remarked dryly in her head, watching the apathetic expressions on her new classmates, whose ages varied from eight to nine years old. One of them was already snoring quietly on his desk, a puddle of droll forming on it, while the girl next to him stared straight ahead to the board with a dead fish look on her eyes and mouth hanging open. Behind her, a boy stood balancing on the back legs of his chair, staring at the ceiling and trying to turn out his neighbor who constantly stabbed his pen on the desk as if it was a knife he was holding instead of a simple and innocent writing tool.

What a promising sign. And those kids were the future of Kirigakure. Ha, the village would do best in ridding itself of them or at least forbid them from reproducing. Kami knows if Stupid can be considered a sickness of mind or if the babe can catch it from the womb.

Kisame and Kurai shared long look. Maybe they should have stayed with the first years after all. At least they were a little more motivated than this.

Old Lady cleared her throat, perhaps hoping to the class' attention. Needleless to say, it didn't work. She tried again, with the same result, thought this time some of the class did turn their heads to look at them, a meager spark of fleeting interest flickering on their eyes for a second.

Regardless, more than half of the students were still lost in their own little world, so Old Lady turned to the chalk board instead. Curious to see what she would do to gather the children's attention, both Kurai and Kisame turned to watch her. Their expression of curiosity soon were replaced by twin looks of horror, as the crazy woman raised her claw-like left hand with unusually long and sharp nails and dragged them across the board, creating a sound so horrendous that it could be used as a torture weapon against enemy villages. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if Old Lady hadn't used chakra on her hand, but as she had, it had been ten times worse.

When the screeching noise finally stopped, everyone still hold their hands over their ears in case she decided to go to round two. After some moments of absolute silence, they cautiously removed their hands from their now sensitive ears and stared at the teacher. Old Lady smiled happily and turned to her and Kisame. "Well, now sweetheart, why don't you present yourselves?"

She and Kisame shared another look between them, before the boy stepped forward. "Hoshigaki Kisame, seven years."

Silence met Kisame's introduction, as many of the kids eyed him nervously with various degrees of alarm concerning his intimidating and shark-like appearance.

Kisame gave no heed to his audience's unease, instead basking on it with a light mocking smirk adorning his face before turning to look at her expectantly. She sighed, but stepped forward anyway, giving the class a lazy two-fingered salute. "Izumi Kurai, five years."

Like with Kisame, there was silence for a moment, but for a very different reason. Abruptly, snickers broke out among the children, almost everyone pointing at Kurai with smirks that spelled trouble. Someone in the back of the classroom coughed "Baby" loudly enough for the whole class to hear them, sending the children into another fit of laughter.

Next to her, Kisame fumed silently, giving the whole class a dark look but Kurai did nothing. During all of that she stared at them blankly, not reacting at all. Who cares about what those children think of her because of her age? Worse for them, who will undoubtedly underestimate her in battle, unwittingly giving her the advantage.

Let them think whatever they want. It will be their bodies lying on the ground when she's finished with them.

Still, she couldn't help but feel a bit of annoyance brewing in the pit of her stomach. She may be five, but she didn't appear that weak, did she?

After letting out a controlled amount of killing intent (works wonders to discipline rambunctious young ninjas-in-training), their sensei finally managed to call attention to herself, indicating Kurai and Kisame to take a seat.

Much to their displeasure, there were only two empty seats today, one in the room's left corner and the other in the middle. They would be unable to sit together.

Waving Kisame off to the middle chair, Kurai walked over the other one, seating next to a girl that seemed to be one or two years older than her blue friend. The girl was one of the few who hadn't laugh at her introduction, and had sharp blue eyes that glistered like sapphires shining under Kiri's hardly-ever-seen sun, with small waves of rich dark brown hair that reached mid-back, unlike Kurai's, that only reached her shoulders.

"Takara" the girl says, extending a hand and giving a shy but pretty smile.

"Kurai" she replies, shaking hands with her.

She can feel Kisame's suspicious stare glaring holes on her head.

**.**

Takara is eight years old, from a civilian family, living only with her parents and grandmother, and is a soon-to-be older sister. Kurai watches the excitement dancing in her blue eyes while the girl tells her that her mother is expecting twins and wonders what is like to have a sibling, wonders if it is anything like her relationship with Kisame. Somehow, she doubts it. After all, siblings don't abandon and occasionally try to kill each other, right?

Regardless of the uneasiness she feels every time the older girl talks about her family, Kurai likes Takara. It is good to have a new person to talk with, and a girl at that! She likes to hang out with the blue-eyed girl and fancies that so does Takara, since she always drags Kurai all over the nicer parts of Kiri with a smile on her face, carrying her off to clothes stores and food shops, refusing to let the younger pay for anything.

Kurai likes Takara so much so, that she invites the girl to join her and Kisame in training. At first, Kisame is furious, adamantly refusing to share her with someone else during their time together, but Kurai insists, pushes and threatens until Kisame reluctantly agrees, after seeing Takara get bullied by some boys of their class and watching as the brown haired girl took down one of the three kids with a ruthlessness that left him mildly impressed. No one would have believed that the pretty, delicate-looking girl that was sure to grown into a beauty in the coming years could be capable of such deviousness.

In some weeks, Kisame stops glowering and muttering under his breath each time Takara appears in the river. In some months, he is indifferent to her presence, preferring to ignore her but capable of acts of politeness around the older girl, with a little pushing from Kurai. At the end of the year, Kisame grins and taunts Takara good-naturedly, calling her Princess and trying to teach her some of his own moves, hoping that she will get better in her stance. It is for naught, of course, since Takara is useless in taijutsu, but Kurai's blue shark is nothing if not determined. Or just stubborn as a mule.

**.**

Takara doesn't want to be a shinobi.

It is plain as day and it leaves Kurai shocked to learn she needed three and a half months to understand this. When asked, Takara admitted the only reason she decided to be a shinobi was to help her family with the money earned in missions and spare her future siblings from having to take the same path of pain and death. The path of a shinobi.

Kurai cocks her head to the side and wonders why she would go to such lengths for someone that wasn't even born yet.

"Why would you give up your entire future for someone that you have never met?" she asks, confused. She just can't imagine, never knowing what was like having a normal family. For Kurai, there was ever only Yagura. And her Father was the only one important. Not her mother, grandparents or any siblings that she might have, if the woman who birthed her is still alive. Only for her Father would she go to such lengths.

And Takara answers. "Because they aren't just 'someone'. They are going to be my siblings and I will love them forever. When my parents and grandma are gone, I will be the one to look out for them, the one that will have to care and provide food and a home to them. They may not be born yet, but they are family, and I already love them more than life."

Family. What a weird and wonderful thing.

Nonetheless, she is glad that her little family consists of only her and her Father. Deep down, Kurai is afraid of meeting someone else that might become as essential to her as Yagura is, because then she would have two or more people to protect.

And the chances that she would fail would only rise higher and higher.

**.**

The year passes, and Kurai is six, nearing seven while Kisame turns eight and Takara is the oldest, having just celebrated her ninth birthday. A year passes and Class 3-B earns a new addition to its ranks.

She is young, like Kurai, having turned seven only months ago, but stands with her head held high, wearing a light blue kimono with a silver obi, determined green eyes shining and auburn hair tied up in a top-knot with blue lace and four bangs framing her face, one of them partially covering her right eye, while the two longer ones were left almost-but-not-quite touching each other under her chin.

"My name is Mei Terumi, and I'm going to be the Mizukage one day!"

Her bold declaration is met with incredulous stares and roaring laugher making her go red in the face, not from embarrassment, but anger. And is then that Kurai sees the glint in little Mei Terumi's eyes for the first time and decides that she just might be the female competition she was waiting for. Takara was good, better than many girls on their class, but her skills did not lie in taijutsu like Kurai's did. No, the blue-eyed girl has just discovered her latent talent in genjutsu when the class officially began to work with chakra and was now determined to become a mistress in the art of illusions.

Terumi Mei on the other hand…

**.**

Mei is wild. There is no other word.

She's a child and acts like one, but at the same time is talented enough to knock you on your ass faster than one can blink if given reason, like Gorou, one of the bullies in their class, soon finds out after making a less than stellar comment about Mei's unusual hair color.

Kurai couldn't be more pleased as she watches Gorou running away in tears, carrying a black eye, scrapped knees, a bloody nose and no less than two sore ribs. She invites Mei over to join her, Takara and Kisame at the river. The young Terumi agrees after seeing their performance in the sparring matches arranged by Old Lady (whose name Kurai still didn't know) and a chunnin aid, while Kisame grumbles about how being surrounded by chicks is doing no good to his manly image.

Kurai gives him a deadpan expression, and tells him in no uncertain way just what she thinks of his 'manly' image. He is still too young to have any type of image that could be considered manly to begin with. Bloody, monstrous, yes, but manly? No, just no.

Kisame sulks, but he still goes to the river, where he promptly challenges Mei to a spar. The boy laughs and mocks her halfway through the fight, when it becomes obvious that his strength and stamina far surpass Terumi's. The girl becomes enraged, and in front of Kurai and Takara's shocked eyes, Mei spat at Kisame. However, it wasn't a normal spit. Rather, it was like she had just spat lava at the boy, who yelped and ducked to avoid a very nasty two-degree burn.

"What?" little Mei Terumi, with her arms crossed over her chest and a cheeky grin on her face asks, when she finds herself being stared at by everyone in the clearing.

Kisame promptly named her Red Hag.

Needlessly to say, by the end of the day, the young Hoshigaki looked like a walking grilled fish.

**.**

Kurai stares at the wood bokken Kisame proudly shows off to her with an interested eye. She has never held a sword before, much less used one, and thinks how good it is that someone in their little group of misfits has taken up the mission of learning kenjutsu.

They already had a developing ninjutsu specialist in Mei, a potential genjutsu mistress in Takara, and herself as their future taijutsu expert. It was only right that Kisame would have a field entirely of his own too.

"What do you think? Fuguki-sensei bought it to me this morning, saying he was happy with my progress in the Academy."

Kurai raises an eyebrow and looks at him, amused. "Ah, so now is 'Fuguki-sensei'? What happened to 'that Fuguki guy'?"

Kisame grins sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head and messing up his spiky hair (which, Kurai noted idly, has gotten longer. She would need to cut it for him later), before returning to his tale.

"He says that he will begin to teach me how to use it before I graduate! Wouldn't that be awesome?! I can already see it, there I am, holding Samehada in one hand and…"

Kurai lets Kisame talk her ear off and have his moment. She lets him drag her to her Father's dojo and watch as he makes a few tentative strokes in the air, before picking up the rhythm and slashing the bokken around himself, as if slaying invisible enemies. Watching Kisame play around with his new sword makes her smile. Not because it's funny as hell seeing him hopping around the dojo, making a fool of himself (thought she won't deny that it is).

Rather, it's because, as she watches the boy in front of her, Kurai can't help but compare him to the child he was when they met for the first time, when he saved her in the river. Kisame still wears baggy clothes with dirt and holes on them, and even now she can see that the hem of his right sleeve is already fraying. He has gotten even taller and his hair was longer than what used to be. It isn't his physical features that make Kurai watch him thought.

It is in the way he carries himself, so different from the curious and somewhat uncertain boy that had dragged her out of the water almost two years ago. He is more confident now, in himself, in his abilities and in his future. Kisame's dark eyes now shone with a wild beast that Kurai had helped unleash, a proud, unyielding beast that refused to go back to its cage and wouldn't be brought down by anyone.

Kisame has changed. And Kurai wonders if she has too.

**.**

"Sometimes I worry about him, you know."

Both Kurai and Mei look up to stare at Takara, who was watching the retreating back of one Hoshigaki Kisame. Mei's face was contorted in an appalled expression at their friend while Kurai's showed surprise at the older girl's words.

"What do you mean?" she asks, munching away in one of the dumplings.

They were sitting inside of Ichiraku's Dango Shop (the same one Kisame had showed her months ago), both she and Takara eating the delicacy of gods aka dango while Mei nursed a jasmine grey tea, having refused the sweet (Blasphemy!).

Takara shifted her eyes away from Kisame when he turned a corner to look at the two younger girls. "He's alone, don't you think?"

Mei looks back at the spot Kisame had turned and snorted while Kurai frowned, placing her now empty stick on the plate at the center of their table.

"What do you mean?" she asks carefully, her pink eyes never leaving Takara's face.

"Well, apart from us, he doesn't have any friends, does he? And even when he's with us he may feel left out, considering he's the only boy."

Takara shrugged. "It was just a thought. I mean, all three of us have families to return too, but Kisame doesn't, right? In the end of the day and everyone is back at home, where does he go to? He said he lives in an Orphanage, and I heard enough about Kiri's orphanages to know that those aren't places I would ever want to live."

Now even Mei had a thoughtful look on her face and something like pity in her green eyes, making Kurai bristle a little. Why did she pity Kisame? He didn't need anyone's pity, had no use for it. He didn't want it.

They parted ways quickly after that, Takara offering to walk a disgruntled Mei home ("I don't need you to walk me home! I'm not a child!", "Technically, Mei-chan, you _are_"), leaving Kurai to walk back home alone just like she wanted. In the beginning, Takara had wanted to accompany her home as well, but one long look was enough to dissuade her from doing that.

"_All_ _three of us have families to return too, but Kisame doesn't, right?_"

Kurai's steps fastened as Takara's words come back to her mind, making her stomach churn unpleasantly and spoiling her mood.

Kisame was not lonely… was he?

She walked faster still, until she was running down the streets, narrowly avoiding bumping with dark shadows that were the villagers, no clear direction in mind. She was just letting her feet guide her, letting her thoughts take control.

"_Kisame doesn't have anyone apart from us, but in the end of the day and everyone is back home, where does he go to?"_

She was just following the chakra that felt larger than an ocean.

Kurai finally stops when she reaches her destination; the river. _Their river_. And just like she expected, there he was, swinging his wood sword in more-or-less graceful arcs, still getting used to the bokken. She made no move to stop him from hearing her approaching footsteps and after a second he looked up with a silly grin on his face.

"Ne, Sukoshi. What are you doing here? Though you would stay with the girls today-"

"Are you lonely?" she cut him off sharply, pink eyes never leaving his face.

Kisame was so stunned by the sudden question that he actually dropped his sword. Quickly picking it up, he turned to give her a bewildered stare.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you feel left out?" Kurai asked in a rush, the words slipping past her lips without her notice. "Is it because you're the only boy? Because you know you can always spend time with the boys right? I mean, if that's what you want, go ahead, you ca-"

"Hey, hey, hey. Stop that. I don't want to spend time with the boys from our class. They are all idiots." Kisame interrupted her, holding up a blue hand as a signal to stop. "Besides, why would I spend time with them, when I can simply stay with you and Takara? And the Red Hag too, I guess."

Kurai shook her head, black curls bouncing left and right. "But don't you feel alone when we part ways?"

Kisame was silent for a moment before sighing dejectedly and turning around to sit back on a boulder. Gently placing the bokken next to him on the ground, he motioned for her to sit next to him. Gingerly, she did so, a cacophony of thoughts running inside her.

"When I was born, my parents abandoned me on a bin and I was left to die; would have too, if it wasn't for a homeless girl passing by that heard my cries. Sorane (that was the girl's name) found and tried to take care of me. In fact, she was the one to name Kisame. But being a kid herself, she didn't know the first thing about babies, especially newborns. She relented after a few days and took me to an orphanage, staying there as well, with me."

Kurai listened to his words with rapt attention. Kisame had never shared his past with her before, and that was okay, since she never did too. For them, the other didn't exist before they met, and they were just fine continuing that way. Really, what was the point of telling stories of the past to each other? They already knew all they needed to know about the other just by looking in their eyes. Both of them had seen pain and blood; did it matter in what circumstances, when they lived in Kirigakure, a village where four out of ten people committed suicide in a year's time?

"Growing up there was a little difficult, but nothing compared to living in the streets. Regardless, the other kids didn't want to associate with me and Sora-nee, who was seven years my senior, was too busy attending the Academy with all the other orphans to pay much attention to me. One day, when I complained that she didn't care for me anymore, she told me that she was studying hard so that she could become a ninja and leave the orphanage, saving money so that she would buy an apartment where we would live together."

Kisame become silent once more, arms hugging his knee and head resting over them, with eyes staring lost in the mist and memories. Kurai waited impatiently for him to speak again, though unwilling to rush him.

"The day came when she would do her final exam and I vaguely remember how excited she was. How today was our first step to get out of the orphanage. She went to the Academy and I waited. And waited. After a time, I realized that she wouldn't be coming back."

Kurai felt déjà-vu growing inside her. How terribly familiar words, hn?

"Eventually I figured that she had lied about coming back for me since I never saw her again. I ran away from the orphanage then, barely four years old, and there in the streets I lived and survived, just like Onee-san taught me before disappearing. Things didn't get better after that. Everyone shunned and avoided me like the plague and I learned to bear the solitude. I resigned myself to the fact that I would live and die alone. And then I met you."

He looks at her then, and there's something so raw and open in his dark eyes, an unknown emotion taking hold of him for a fraction of time, that Kurai doesn't know what to do, can't even draw enough air for her lungs and breath. She just feels consumed by a deep sadness and regret, staring into her friend's eyes.

Kisame looks away and she can breathe again, waiting for him to continue.

"Sometimes, especially during the nights when I sit on the windowsill of my room in the orphanage, I feel lonely. But that's not your, or Takara, or Mei's fault. Rather, you three are the reason that loneliness goes away. You are the reason I look to the sky and wait impatiently for morning to come, because I know that then I will see you all again, and won't have to feel so alone anymore."

Kurai stays silent, digesting the information Kisame has just shared with her as her heart thumps loudly in her chest.

_Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump…_

"I lived in an orphanage too" she blurts out, incapable of stopping herself, realizing she didn't _want_ _to_. Kisame had shared his past with her. It was now her turn to be honest.

"Wha…? But, I thought… Yagura-?" the boy is so surprised that he can't seem to form the necessary words, ending up just falling into a perplexed silence as he stares at her.

"Yagura is my Father. But he never knew about me until one of the orphanage's staff told the Mizukage that I existed. The Sandaime was the one to tell my Father, and then we met and Otou-sama adopted me." She fidgets a little, nervously tugging at one her curls, unused to being so open about her past. "But for the first three years of my life I was no one; didn't have any friends or even a name for that matter. The children called me Musei, because I refused to speak and they thought it was because I was mute."

"Why didn't you speak?" Kisame asks gently, a kind of softness in his voice that she had never heard from him before.

Kurai shrugs, looking ahead with an apathetic expression on her face. "Why should I? No one was there to hear my voice anyway."

_I was as alone as you were._

Tentatively, a blue hand, bigger than hers, came to rest lightly on her clenched fist. For a moment, Kurai thought she could almost hear Kisame's thoughts in her head.

_I am here to hear you._

They lapsed into silence, but it wasn't an awkward one. It was the type of comfortable silence that can only exist between two people who are completed at easy with each other. The type of understanding and accepting silence that told them _I'm here, I'm here and I'm staying here, you don't have to be alone anymore_.

They spent the rest of the day there in the river bank, simply basking in each other's company, making no move to leave or to talk again. There was no need; they simply let their backs rest against the great boulder and looked at the few stars that could be seen from behind the dark clouds.

It was simple. It was peaceful. It was wonderful.

And, for that small handful of hours left of mutual understanding between them, before they had to part ways once more with the promise of seeing each other again come morning, it was absolutely perfect.

Kurai sees a shooting star crossing the evening sky and Kisame turns to her with a giant grin on his face. "Now you have to make a wish!"

She looks up at the sky before turning to him, her expression puzzled. "A wish?" Kurai echoes bemusedly.

Kisame grinned sheepishly, messing his spiky hair. "Hai. A wish."

It seems important to him, so she closes her eyes and makes her wish.

When she opens her eyes, Kisame is leaning down close to her face; his curious gaze asking without words what had she wished for.

But Kurai only grins and smiles and finally laughs and refuses to tell him, saying that it will never come true if someone knows. Kisame sits next to her, pouting and sulking and staring at her smiling face with amazed eyes and a small smile at the sound of her chuckles.

Both of them may be lonely. But they could be lonely together.


	10. Chapter 10 - Academy (Last Days)

**Dark Waters**

**Chapter 10 – Academy (Last Days)**

**.**

**.**

It was a normal day, their small group gathered outside the village at the river bank like usual, sparring against each other in an effort to prepare for the rapid-approaching Graduation Exam.

There was only one person missing.

Mei looked around, confused. "Has someone seen Takara?"

Kisame shakes his head from his position kneeling by the river, blue hands pressed together so that he could take great gulps of cool water, while Kurai elaborates from her perch at the top of the boulder.

"I saw an old woman whisking her away the moment we stepped foot out of the Academy. She seemed pretty nervous."

"Do you think something has happened?" Mei asks, in rare display of concern for their friend.

Kisame, who had already sated his thirst, shared a dark look with Kurai.

"I'm sure that she's fine." Kurai's attempt to placate the redhead was ignored, as Mei began to walk in circles in her agitation. Kisame himself was now sporting a worried frown.

Just then a figure busted through the mist, running straight to them. At once, Kurai jumped down from the boulder, her small body already falling in her taijutsu stance with Kisame barely a second behind her, blue hand already reaching for the bokken hanging from his waist. After a nod from them, Mei stopped walking and her hands twitched, ready to form handseals to her jutsus at any given moment.

Until they saw who was it running towards them.

"Takara!"

And so it was. Their missing friend stopped in front of them, dark brown hair disheveled, face pale, hands holding her shaking knees and harsh pants coming out of her mouth.

Kurai eyed the older girl apprehensively. "What happened to you?"

After a few seconds to catch her breath, blue eyes looked at them through dark bangs. "I-it's t-time. It's time!"

The other three shared a puzzled look.

"Time for what?" Kisame asked.

"It's h-happening! T-they are, they are c-coming, I n-need, I need-!" Takara stopped abruptly to draw in a shuddering breath. "My siblings are coming!"

Kurai's eyes widened. Takara had told them yesterday that her mother was due anytime now, but for some reason, she hadn't realized that 'now' really meant 'today'.

"Well, what are you guys waiting for?! Come on!" Takara shouted, grabbing her and Mei's hands.

Now, normally, neither Kurai nor Mei allowed someone, even if it was Takara, to manhandle them so, outside sparring. However, both were in too much of shock to protest as they were dragged by their arms towards the hidden entrance Mei and Takara used to get out of the village so that they could met in the river.

Fortunately, Kisame still had his wits about.

"H-hey, Princess! Wait a moment there! Where are you taking Sukoshi off to?" he shouted, scrambling to follow the three.

Without turning her head, the blue-eyed girl answered. "Home, of course! We need everyone's help if we want Kaa-san and the twins to survive past the labor!"

_Help?_, Kurai thought, stunned silent. _She?!_

Takara was dragging them towards her house so that she and Mei could help her mother give birth to her siblings?!

Both Kisame and Mei seemed to have come to the same conclusion, if the horrified look on their faces was anything to go by.

"B-but-!"

"Why do you need our help? Can't you just take you mom to the hospital or something?" Mei asked a little desperately, trying to wriggle her arm out of Takara's strong grip. For someone so unpromising in taijutsu, the girl surely had a hidden strength.

"We can't!" was Takara's replay, and for the first time since she arrived, Kurai could hear the slight hints of hysteria creeping in the other girl's voice.

Takara was scared. Scratch that, she was absolutely terrified.

Kurai narrowed her eyes to slits. "What happened?"

Frightened blue eyes turned to stare at her through dark lashes.

"My family is poor. No medic in Kiri will help Kaa-san if we can't pay for their services. And the only midwife willing to help is too old to do the job all alone, especially if they are twins. Yuna-sensei can't promise that all three, if even that, will survive"

Everyone stared at Takara with flabbergasted expressions on their faces, a terrible feeling growing on their stomach.

"Please, you are the only ones that I know I can count on helping us! Tou-san, Jii-san and Obaa-san are out of the village and no there is no one else! Please!"

Takara was crying now, tears streaming down her face as the fear she had been feeling since Yuna-sensei appeared on the Academy finally took hold of her. She could lose both her mother and her siblings today!

"Please…" she sobbed, shoulders shaking and head bowed.

Kurai looked up to stare at Mei's determined green eyes and saw the same iron-conviction in them. No words were needed.

A small hand on her shoulder made Takara look up from the ground to stare at calm pink pools.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Lead the way."

Behind Kurai, Mei nodded determinately while Kisame grinned at her, with his arms crossed over his chest as if saying 'what are you waiting for?'.

The blue-eyed girl smiled through her tears.

Truly, what wonderful friends she had.

**.**

They could hear the screeching far sooner than they could see the house.

The screams were enough to make Kurai reconsider her decision to help. It sounded like someone was being gutted (and Kurai knew very well how _that_ sounds like). However, she wasn't given the chance to announce her new change of feelings before Kurai found herself being ushered inside a small and decrepit-looking house in the village's outskirts and being stared down by a woman that had to be at least a century years old.

"I told you to search for help Takara. Not for a bunch of toddlers and a walking shark." The old woman snapped.

Next to her, Mei turned an indignant red at being called a toddler and behind Kurai, she could almost feel Kisame's twitching eye.

"Please Yuna-sensei! They are willing to help!" Takara pleaded, flinching at the sound of her mother's scream of pain.

Yuna-sensei sighed tiredly before fixing them with a, admittedly terrifying, glare.

"You two will do exactly what I say, when I say, with no hesitation or questions, am I clear?"

"Hai, ma'am" the three answered dutifully, properly cowed by the elder's powerful glare.

"Good. You, the redhead, take those towels and bring them to the room. And you," Kurai straightened when she found herself being pierced by Yuna's eyes. "Bring me water. Lot's and lot's of it."

"And me? What do I do?" Kisame asked hesitantly, as if not really wanting to hear an answer.

"You will help the redhead carry the towels. Than you will stay put and away from that room. You can't trust men to do a woman's job." Yuna muttered the last part to herself while walking away in the direction of all the shrieking, barking at Takara to follow her.

Kurai never knew Kisame could look so immensely relieved and indignant at the same time.

**.**

Nine hours. That's how long it took to Azayaka Yuuki, Takara's mother, to give birth.

Nine gruesome hours of incessant shrieking and blood that probably would haunt every child in the house for the rest of their lives. Thank Kami that her Father was away in a long-term mission, or who knows what he would have done if Kurai failed to come back home before his set curfew. He would have thought that she had been kidnapped.

Again.

Kurai liked to think herself a strong person. There were no doubts that she could handle a lot of things that would make most children her age faint at the mere idea of enduring. However, she discovered rather quickly that she could not handle women giving birth.

Mei, who was holding wet towels, looked paler than Kurai had ever seen her before, with green eyes almost bulging out of their sockets, so wide were they. Kurai herself probably didn't look any better and her hand twitched towards the empty kunai pouch strapped on her waist every time Yuuki-san breathed a little too loudly, as if expecting the woman to explode into another round of ear-bursting screams.

Halfway through the labor, Kurai was sure she had become half-deaf, and couldn't be more relieved when the unmistakable cry of a baby pierced the house. Finally, that torture was going to end now.

Unfortunately for her, she had forgotten it was twins. And that the second one was being a little more stubborn than it's sister to leave Yuuki-san's stomach.

It was one and a half hour after sundown when the labor finally ended for real. A pair of twins, a little girl and a baby boy, respectively named Mariko and Ichiro, the new members of the Azayaka family.

Kurai never thought she would ever see someone look so happy in Kirigakure. Takara was practically glowing, peering down at her new younger siblings like she had been the one to birth them.

After making sure Yuuki and the babies were going to survive, Yuna-sensei turned to the three girls in the room, who immediately straightened their posture at her glare.

"Yuuki-san needs rest if she wants to recover. You Takara, will see to it that you mother has everything she needs to be comfortable, am I clear?"

"Hai, Yuna-sensei."

The scowling woman turned to her. "You, Pink Eyes. Is there still water left?"

Kurai nodded mutely, annoyed at being called 'Pink Eyes' by the woman.

"Then you and the Redhead will wash the blood off the babies. And be careful! If you drop any of them I will have your heads!"

"Ah, e-excuse me, but... Can I take care of Yuuki-san?" Mei asked nervously. "I'm not… well… good with… babies…"

"Fine. Whatever. Takara, you and Pink Eyes will take care of the twins. Give them a bath and then give them to your mother to be fed," saying that, Yuna-sensei turned and walked out of the room, presumably to give the new mother the rest she needed, though Kurai had her doubts. She thought much more likely that the old hag went to eat and sleep now that her job was done, leaving the clean-up to the younger generation.

Sometimes, Kurai really hated being around people older than her all the time. It always sucked when someone thought they could order her to do something just because they were older. Of course, she would gladly beat that unfortunate delusion off their heads every time she had the opportunity. It was just too bad she couldn't do that with Yuna-sensei. The shrewd woman actually could order her around. She certainly was old enough to warrant her respect, and though not a shinobi, still had a strict air Kurai could admire.

"Hai, Yuna-sensei! Come on, Kurai, I need you to carry one of them."

She groaned quietly and sent a look full of betrayed trust to Mei, the traitor. Why couldn't have been her?

When she looked up, Takara was standing in front of her with two crying babies wrapped in grey blankets.

"Which one do you want to hold?" she asked excitedly, almost bouncing in the spot.

Kurai looked at the wailing babies. "Does it matter?"

She shrugged. "Not really." Then Takara handed her the baby boy – Ichiro, Kurai's mind supplied – and guided her towards a small sink with warm water.

Kurai watched as her friend carefully took the girl – Mariko – out of her blankets and, with a sponge, began to gently clean her. Kurai had never seen Takara look so, so… peaceful before. There was always a line of tension in Takara's actions, always a caution that every other child and adult that lived in the slums of Kirigakure for some time possessed.

Kurai looked down at the bundle resting in her arms.

Was this what it felt like to have a sibling?

Ichiro looked like what newborns were supposed to look like, or so Kurai imagined, having never seen another newborn before. The baby boy had his eyes screwed shut, a permanent frown etched on his face, and with blood all over his body, he looked more like a little monster than a baby. Rather ugly, really. The pink-eyed girl couldn't think of one thing to love about the thing currently resting in her arms.

And yet…

She looked at Takara once more.

She had finished cleaning Mariko and was now watching her baby sister with an awed look in her eyes. The love and adoration was plain for anyone to see.

Takara already loved her siblings, for nothing more than merely being present in her life.

To be treasured in such a way, just for existing… A love so pure, strong and without expectations…

Would Kurai have loved any siblings she might have had too?

She didn't know. She hated not knowing.

When Takara turned to take Ichiro from her arms, she would never admit that for a second, just for a second, her arms tightened around the baby boy before handing him over to his big sister.

If Takara noticed her unconscious action, she did not comment on it.

After that, Kurai fled from the stuffy room as fast as she could.

**.**

Yuna-sensei refused to let them go without dining first. Kisame didn't object to it ("Anything's better than what the orphanage calls food") and neither did Mei, to Kurai's surprise. She had thought the redhead would have run away as soon as possible, seeing how pale and traumatized she had looked in the room.

"Don't get me wrong," Mei had said, casually slurping on the noodles of her ramen bowl. "I certainly did not enjoy watching how our mothers brought us to the world, and could have gone by not knowing for a few more decades. I can assure you that I'm not going to marry and become pregnant anytime soon. But really, what can you do about it? According to Yuna-sensei, we won't have to worry about it for some years yet, so I'm happy in putting this day behind us in the darkest corners of my mind and never speak of it again."

Kisame, probably for the first and last time in his life, agreed with her wholeheartedly. If he never got to hear a woman giving birth again in this lifetime it would still be too soon.

Yuna-sensei had stared at the young Hoshigaki for a full minute with a deadpan expression before snorting derisively at him and turning to Kurai. "And that girl, is why women are the ones to give birth. Men simply can't handle the pain."

And if for a second Kisame agreed with the old hag, than it was certainly only a repercussion of the day's trauma.

**.**

Time passes, and she was eight now, and her Father speaks about her graduating from the Academy. Kurai does not know why, but Yagura seems to get more and more anxious as time goes by. She only knew one thing for certain.

There was a storm coming.

**.**

They received the news one weekend, when Kurai, Takara, Mei and Kisame were sitting on her kitchen, preparing a lunch for themselves after a long morning of training.

"Oi, Sukoshi. Where do you guys put the bread?" Kisame asked from his place under the table. Why he thought he would find bread under the kitchen's table, Kurai had no idea, and wasn't sure she wanted to know, so she only dragged him out the floor with Takara's help and tossed him a package of bread. Kisame grinned at her in a distinctively shark-like way and almost tore the package open with his sharp teeth, eating one slice after the other and making Kurai wonder where in the nine rings of hell all that food ended up, because Kisame certainly didn't look fat.

Deciding that some mysteries were left better unsolved, she turned to her own rice balls that she shared with Mei and Takara (who was bragging to anyone who would to listen how her six-months-old siblings, Mariko-chan and Ichiro-kun, spoke their first word some days ago. It had been "Onee-chan!", and no one was surprised), when the sound of the front door opening drew everyone's attention.

Instantly recognizing the chakra, Kurai leaped from the counter and dashed to the entrance hall, her friends following lazily behind her.

"Otou-sama" she greeted, bowing respectfully to her Father when she neared him. Behind her, her female friends too gave small bows, nowhere near as deep as Kurai's, but still respectful. Kisame didn't bother, instead giving a shallow nod that managed to look rude and cheeky at the same time.

Yagura nodded at her and the girls' greeting, gave a cold look to Kisame, the look one would give to a particular stubborn smudge of dirt that flatly refused to be cleansed, and went to the kitchen where he began to prepare tea. By the ingredients and the smell that now permeated the kitchen, Kurai saw that her Father was making chamomile tea. Suddenly, she was on high alert. Kurai had learned that Yagura only made chamomile tea when he was stressed and needed to relax. Something had happened today to make her Father nervous.

But what?

"Otou-sama? Did something happen today?"

Silence descends in the kitchen as everyone turns to look at Yagura, who was now sitting on the table carefully sipping in his hot tear.

After a long pause (that Kurai suspects it was only so that her Father could further aggravate Kisame, who was by now almost bursting with impatience), Yagura turned to look at them with guarded eyes.

"Hostilities between Iwa and Konoha have reached the breaking point. As of today, we are now in the Third Great Shinobi War."

The glass of water slipped from between Takara's fingers, breaking and spilling its contents all over the floor. No one noticed, too busy staring at Yagura.

They were in war.

**.**

_And that was the beginning of the end._

_They were never supposed to stay children for so long anyway._

**.**

The days once more flew by and Kurai and her friends grew. Yagura was there as often as he was gone, while whispers of the upcoming war ran across the misty island, coming from merchant ships and their sailors who told stories about the tensions brewing between the other nations and the steadily growing number of fights breaking out along the borders. No important battles had taken place yet, but everyone agreed it was only a matter of time.

The Third Great Shinobi War, after less than ten years of peace between the Elemental Countries, had suddenly become a certainty, rather than just a possibility. Kurai supposed that it was an inevitable change. A shift in the scale of power. They were shinobi after all, and just for once, she could agree with the Sandaime's words. For a shinobi, peace was but another word for time-out. This dangerous game of life and death ninja plays has to continue at some point, and it never ends, until one of the sides give in. And then all that's left is waiting for the same route to repeat itself again and again, in a vicious and endless circle of death.

Still, she worried. How could she not? Kurai was not blind, she knew she and her friends would be used as cannon fodder in this war the instant the demand for shinobi, no matter how inexperienced, surfaced.

If they were unlucky enough, maybe even before.

Considering that they were talking about Kiri, it was more than possible that the Sandaime wouldn't even wait to drop half-trained children in the middle of the battlefield.

But Kurai couldn't spare the war or the Sandaime much thought. Today was the day of her Graduation Exam, and she had a very bad feeling about it.

Her Father had been tense all day, and hadn't allowed her to go train with her friends the day before like she had been doing for years. Instead, he had given her the most brutal and exhausting training session she had ever experienced and she couldn't understand why.

Worst of all, he had decided that he was going to walk her to the Academy.

The minute her Father had voiced his decision, she knew that something very wrong was going to happen today.

Kurai didn't know just how right she was.

**.**

"I want to give you an early graduation's gift."

Kurai turned to look at her Father in shock. A gift?! He had never given her a gift before!

They were in front of Kiri Academy's gate, and many families had also decided that today was the day to walk their kids to school. More than one of the mothers were crying, and Kurai could see that no student could figure out why.

Honestly, neither could she. What was this dark feeling growing in her gut?

"This belonged to my mother, before it was passed down to me. Now, it's yours."

He handed her an object wrapped in black silk and Kurai carefully peeled the cloth off layer by layer.

She gasped and almost let it drop when she saw what it was.

A strikingly crafted dagger rested among the black silk, it's silver blade razor-sharp and curved gleaming in the morning's sunlight, with the handle painted a deep red and dark blue. The most unique features however, were the delicate little sakura blossoms that decorated the heel and took her breath away with it's allure. Almost reverently, Kurai traced the sharp edge and the painted sakura flowers with her fingers, appreciating the time and effort taken to produce such beauty by the person who made this masterpiece, for there was no doubt in her mind that this dagger was a fine piece of art indeed.

The question was, why did her Father decided to give it to her now instead of after the exam?

Again, Kurai felt the hair on her neck stand up as a dark feeling settled on her stomach. What was it that her Father always said? Trust your instincts?

Well, right now, they were telling her to run away as far as her legs can take her.

"Otou-sama-"

"Kurai." He cut her off. "I can't talk to you now. You need to enter and do your test so you can become a shinobi. Don't fail me, daughter."

He turned away, and with a last glance at her over his shoulder (and was that _**worry**_ in his eyes?!), disappeared into the mist before she could speak again.

Definitely, something was very, very wrong.

**.**

They had a written test first. Normal enough. Simple enough. It only served to make her more nervous.

The test was laughably easy for Kurai, as well as for the rest of her friends, including Kisame, who halfway through the test, rested his pen and leaned back on his chair, smirking arrogantly at the chunnin who was overseeing their examination.

When the chunnin began to collect their papers, Kurai thought that it was over. She hoped that it was over.

It wasn't.

"If you would please follow me," the chunnin said, after neatly stacking the written tests on his desk. "I will now lead you to where you will perform the second part of your graduation exam."

_Wrong, wrong, wrong._

The chunnin led them down corridors and finally outside the Academy, towards a large group of student from their year's classes. Behind them all, an enormous grey building encircled by wired gates and with a red warning that said 'restricted area' could be seen. The bad feeling she was feeling had just grown a thousand times worse.

_**Wrong, wrong, wrong.**_

Kurai didn't waste any time in finding her friends and sticking with them. They all noticed her tense posture but wisely decided not to comment on it in such a public place, though Kisame did squeeze her hand reassuringly.

The teachers ushered them inside the restricted area, and the moment the last student entered it, the gates slammed shut behind them. With no way to go back, they could only go forward and that's what they all did, Kisame and Takara having to almost carry Kurai onwards, who did her best to stall as long as possible.

"Come on, Sukoshi! Don't tell me you're nervous! You can wipe the ground with all those dumb girls any day of the week!"

"Thank you for you kind words, Kisame-san." Takara replied dryly.

"Ah, sorry Princess. I didn't include you, just so you know, alright? The Hag, on the other hand…"

"What does that is supposed to mean, fish-stick?"

"Fish-stick? Seriously? That's the best you've got? I've heard three years toddlers curse better than you Hag."

Meanwhile, Kurai's mind was going in overdrive in the risk of shutting down at any moment. How could they be playing in a moment like this? Couldn't they see that there was something very wrong in the air?!

A hand on her shoulder almost made her jump out of her skin, and Kurai barely managed to hold back a shriek. She needed to calm down damnit. She needed to have a cool head if she had any hope to pass this final surprise exam!

Worried sapphire blue eyes stared into her pink orbs.

"Are you okay?" Takara asked softly, her big-sister persona taking over. For once, Kurai was glad it did, instead of annoyed.

_No. No, I'm not. There's something wrong, wrong, __**wrong**__ and you can't see it, none of you can see it…_

"I'm fine"

Really, she had no other option but to be fine.

And unlike some of her classmates, she was not too surprised when she saw that they had ended up in the middle of a great arena. Disheartened, sure, but not terribly surprised.

She did look on in shock thought, when the Sandaime Mizukage announced what they had to do to pass – **to simply** **survive** – their Graduation Exam.

**.**

**.**

It was chaos. She turns around, leg lashing out to knock an enemy (_a child, he's only a child, we are all just children…_) approaching from behind and jumps backwards away from the fray where a bloodbath is slowly unfolding before her wide eyes.

"_**To graduate from Kiri Ninja Academy, all you have to do is fight against each other."**_

"_**The students who manage to survive one hour in the arena will be rewarded with our forehead protector and will have the honor of calling yourselves Kiri-nin."**_

"_**But of course, to become a Kiri-nin, you first have to kill."**_

"_**To become a shinobi from our proud village, you have to kill your fellow classmates."**_

"_**Let the Graduation Exam begin!"**_

Kaguya Hiyasu's speech pounds into her head, even while Kurai fights for her life, trying, and failing, to find her friends that were lost in all the uproar.

_**Kirigakure is cold.**_

The mist is thick in the arena, thicker than before, and Kurai can feel the chakra manipulating it. Someone in their year was taught some ninjutsu, and it wasn't Mei. That could prove to be bad, very, very bad.

_**Kirigakure is cruel.**_

A cry of pain sounds to her left and she turns to see Gorou crying out as he is struck down by a four-man team, two rusty swords sticking out of his stomach. The oldest kid grips the hilt of one of the swords and slashes it sideways, opening Gorou's stomach like he was a pig in the slaughterhouse. Gorou falls to the ground stained with his and other's blood and the ones that ganged up on him turn on each other, ignoring their fallen victim. Kurai knows that Gorou will die from that wound; it was not going to be painless, and it was not going to be fast.

_**Kirigakure is bloody.**_

A boy in front of her get his throat slit from behind. A girl to her right is sprawled on the floor, multiple shurikens sticking out of her back, reminding Kurai of a grotesque porcupine. All around her, children are cut, beaten and shredded, until nothing remains but fallen corpses being stepped on amidst the mist. The earth under her sandals is squishy with blood, water and other fluids Kurai did not wish to think about.

Her village was a brutal one. Izumi Kurai has always known this.

She just hadn't known exactly how deep the depravity of Kirigakure ran.

She looks up to stare at their audience, seeing shinobi with impassive faces looking at the massacre that their Exam had turned out to be, but even then she could still see the apathy and, in some cases, the absolute glee simmering in their eyes. Her eyes seeks the Mizukage box, and just as she had expected, Hiyasu is leaning forward, almost getting up from his seat, avidly watching the slaughter of children with a sick excited gleam in his cold brown eyes. By chance, Kurai sees her Father, sitting next to the Sandaime, and his eyes are as impassive as always, telling nothing of his thoughts or emotions. But it's wrong, that bank gaze is too forced, too edgy. Whatever her Father sees, he doesn't like it.

It warms her inside a little, amidst the mist and blood, to know her Father has a little more humanity than the rest. Even if it's only a little.

She weaves through the fight, striking down anyone on her path with barely a thought to spare. There is only one thing in her mind: survival.

But watching now as friends turn against friends, family members are pitted against each other, all for the sake of one mad man's pleasure, she _knows_.

She can feel the gaze of cold brown eyes on her.

"_**What loyalty do you hold for them? For **_**him**_**?"**_ A voice, sounding disturbingly like Elyse's, asks in her mind.

And Kurai answers almost immediately. _**None**__._

_**None and nothing.**_

This village doesn't deserve her loyalty. And it never will.

Good thing then, that her Father was the only reason she was becoming a shinobi.

**.**

**.**

She graduates. She _survives_. And so does all of her friends.

Kurai watches as the bodies of children are removed from the arena and cannot help but think.

_**But at what price?**_

…

**AN: Promised you guys a double update, uh? What do you think? The aftermath of the Exam, including Kurai' merry little gang's reaction to their surprise graduation massacre is going to be in the next chapter, so hold on guys! Things are finally getting interesting.**

**Don't forget to REVIEW!**


	11. Chapter 11 - Children Born in War

**AN: Chapter 11! One of the most important chapters yet. Hope you guys like it!**

**THANK YOU ALL WHO REVIEWED, FAVORITED AND FOLLOWED!**

**.**

**.**

**Dark Waters**

**Chapter 11 – Children Born in War**

**.**

**.**

The first signal that something was going to turn out horribly wrong that day was when one of the orphanage's matrons smiled at him that morning.

Right then and there, Kisame should have known that today was going to be hell.

But today was his Graduation Exam! He refused to think such pessimistic thoughts on one of the most important days of his life out of principle.

So he merely ignored the old woman, wrapped himself in his best clothes (which wasn't that much of an improvement from his usual attire), put on his sandals, stole an bright red apple from the kitchen to serve as his breakfast (and imagine his surprise when not one of the adults yelled at him for it) and went to make some last minute studying in his room.

Well, 'room' was what the matrons called it. Kisame preferred to call it a cupboard, because that's what it was. When Fuguki-sensei had contacted the Orphanage to inform them that they would be receiving another charge, they had tried to refuse, saying that there were no more rooms available. The funny thing was they were telling the truth.

But of course, no one says 'no' to a member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, and Kisame soon found himself inside Kiri Orphanage.

The end result however, was that he had had to content himself with a small storage room since other children refused to share their quarters with him, too afraid to even look his way.

Kisame snorted while opening his notebook. Bunch of weaklings.

Inside the book, Kurai's clear, if a little bit clumsy, handwriting stood out against the white pages and Kisame soon became absorbed into the diligently written letters, still marveling at the fact that he could read them.

Kisame could finally read, and write too, even if it looked more like a chicken scrawl than anything else. But who cared? He could do two things he never thought he would be able to.

And Sukoshi was the one who had taught them to him.

"You're thinking about that girl."

The shark-like boy let out a yelp (it was definitely not girly!), jumping away from his spot on the pathetic excuse of a bed the orphanage provided, blue hands gripping the notebook so tightly he worried for a moment that he would rip it apart.

Once he was sure that the notebook was not damaged in any way, Kisame looked up, a snarl on his face and ready to shred apart the idiot who had sneaked up on him.

Then he saw who the idiot was.

"Sensei," he said with furrowed brows and a scowl on his face, cheeks suspiciously pink and obstinately ignoring the man's earlier words.

"Kisame," Fuguki Suikazan answered back, lazily waving a hand in greeting from his position next to the door. Strapped behind his back as always, Samehada let out a gurgling noise that could mean many things, from "Hello" to "I'm hungry", and, Kisame's personal favorite, "Want to kill!".

At the beginning, the boy didn't know what to make of the sword. He had never seen anything like Samehada, and doubted that he ever would. It was sometimes scary, the way the great sword could understand what people were talking about. But Kisame was born blue, so really, who was he to judge someone else (or in this case something else) for being out-of-norm?

Frankly, Kisame quite liked Samehada, after he had gotten over the fact the sword had almost suffocated him just so that it could taste some of his chakra. It was a little like a dog actually.

A big, destructive, unpredictable and chakra-thirsty dog. Oh well, no one was perfect.

He had always liked dogs better anyway. They were the best at sniffing out a potential meal on the streets. Much better than cats.

"What do you want?" he asked, annoyed.

Fuguki lifted one of his eyebrows. "Is that the way you greet you Master?"

Gritting his sharp teeth together, Kisame managed to bit out "Beg your pardon shishou, but what do you want now?"

"Your manners are appalling and your attempt at covering it up, atrocious. Clearly you have learned nothing from me in the past months. Sometimes I wonder why I waste my time with you."

Rolling his eyes, Kisame fixed him with a flat stare. "Because secretly you're a masochist who likes to bring suffering to himself."

Silence.

"I was going to give you a gift, but I have recently discovered that I am a sadist as well as a masochist. So I think I will hold on it for a little while longer."

Kisame stared at the retreating back of his teacher before running after him down the stairs, ignoring the gaping orphans in the way, until they were out of the dark building and he was right behind Fuguki. "Sometimes I really hate you." he told the shinobi seriously.

"Sometimes I want to strangle you too," was the serene reply.

"…"

"…"

"So… Will you give me my present now?"

"…"

"…"

"… No."

"… I hate you."

"I love you too, Kisame-kun."

It was only when they arrived at the Academy that Fuguki finally relented and gave him his gift.

Kisame stared in amazement at the short sword on his hands, his gaze never once straying from the kodachi's sharp edge. He held it with one hand, feeling the blade's perfect balance, admiring the tempered steel. A real sword.

It was absolutely amazing.

His grip tightened on the handle.

And it was _his_.

"I told you I would give you a sword before your Graduation Day. I intended to give it to you yesterday, but had an appointment I couldn't ignore. You will use this blade for the next years, that's why it's a little bigger than what you are used to with the bokken; so that you may grow on it. I expect you to have mastered it before I even think about letting you train with Samehada. Are we clear boy?"

"Crystal," Kisame manages to croak out, throat strangely tight, his eyes never leaving the blade resting on his hands.

He didn't see it, but Fuguki's eyes softened a little, even while he smirked at him, before turning around and preparing to leave.

"Ah, and Kisame…" the man says without turning back. "Don't get killed. It would be such a shame for you to die now after all the time I spent on you."

Kisame only nods distractedly, not even paying attention to the man's words, too busy imagining all the things he could do with a real blade in his hands.

It's only later that morning, when Kisame dugs his new kodachi into the stomach of a boy from his class, that he remembers his teacher's words – and the meaning behind them.

Because now, Kisame understands. His nee-san never abandoned him, never lied to him. The only reason she didn't come back all those years ago was because she _couldn't_.

She couldn't, because she was **dead**.

Kisame had always disliked liars, since Sora-nee. But now he knew, with absolute certainty, that he **hated** them.

It's not the first time that he has come to that conclusion, nor it would be the last, but Kisame knows it's the first time that he felt such anger, such _rage_, when he sees how false his supposed fellow shinobi are, seeing children his age and younger taking turns at killing each other. How they are only a bunch of liars and back-stabbing bastards. A pack of bloodthirsty monsters that took a sick pleasure out of watching kids butcher themselves in a desperate attempt to survive.

From many years from now, Kisame would look back and think that maybe it was then that the first crack on his soul appeared. Maybe it was then that he truly understood, standing atop the bodies of his classmates, that he really could trust no one but himself.

But at the time, Kisame only knew he would never forgive Kirigakure for this.

So he threw himself right into the fray, his kodachi slashing out, ripping anyone near. Some tried to run away when they saw him coming their way, but he caught up to them, taking especial care to make their deaths a little slower, a little more painful.

He would kill every lying bastard in his way, even if that meant killing off every kid in this godforsaken arena. And then, when he was older, stronger and ready, he would murder the true culprits.

His eyes flashed to the shinobi standing in the audience, from the bored jounin to the smirking Sandaime Mizukage. His mind memorized the faces of everyone in there. Right then he swore he would destroy every last one of them.

His eyes zeroed at the light grey-haired man with emotionless pink pupiless eyes sitting next to their village's Kage.

_**Every. Last. One.**_

Kisame Hoshigaki was done being a child.

**.**

Terumi Mei wanted to be Mizukage since she could talk. In fact, her mother would often joke how her first word had been 'Kage!", instead of the usual 'kaa-chan' or 'tou-chan'.

If asked why she wished to become their village's leader, little Mei would immediately think about the power, the prestige, the fame that came with the title.

She wanted to become Mizukage, not for her village's good, but for her own satisfaction.

And for many years those were the things she dreamed about, the rewards Mei would gain when she proved to be the strongest ninja in Kiri. The power and glory, those were her motivations to train from dawn to dusk, until her body collapsed from the sheer exhaustion.

And then, she met Izumi Kurai and her two ragtag friends, Azayaka Takara and Hoshigaki Kisame.

The young Terumi couldn't understand why someone so obviously talented would lower herself to the point of befriending the two loners in their classroom, one of them being the village's pariah. It just didn't process in her brain.

Why would someone like Kurai Izumi, their class taijutsu prodigy, better even than Mei herself, hang out with Azayaka and Hoshigaki?

Azayaka wasn't so bad, Mei conceded. At least the girl had manners and knew her place, always avoiding her betters. But she obviously wasn't cut out to be a ninja. She couldn't run ten laps around the village without constant breaks; her endurance something pitiful at best. The girl's only redeeming quality was her exceptional chakra control, and even that didn't help her too much.

But Hoshigaki! That one had no positive traits whatsoever. Blue, vulgar and all-around a brute, Hoshigaki was the type of boy that should be living in the streets, and not in their classroom. He was strong, yes, but what good is strength when it's in the hands of someone who doesn't know how to use it?

So no, Terumi Mei was not overly fond of Izumi's associates.

But then Izumi invited Mei to meet her and her partners outside the village for training.

Her view on Izumi and her two charity cases (because what else would drive someone like Izumi to befriend those two but pity?) changed when she saw all of them in action together.

Mei had gone to simply spar with Izumi, ignore Azayaka and insult Hoshigaki every time he opened his mouth. But the blue-skinned boy simply had to antagonize her, challenging Mei to a fight. She accepted with little hesitation, eager to show the crude boy how far beneath her he really was.

Of course, Hoshigaki just had to surprise her.

Mei had never seen the boy fight in class like he fought outside it, and was whole unprepared to Kisame's sudden boost of skill. He was just faster, stronger, his moves more unpredictable out in the wild than inside the Academy. One mistake, one moment of inattention, and she would be knocked out cold.

She won, by the skin of her teeth, having to resort to her family's secret jutsus to do so.

Nevertheless, from that first fight and on, Mei had developed a kind of new respect for the orphan Kisame Hoshigaki. She still disliked him as much as he did her, and both could often be found hurling insults at each other, but beneath the angry words and sharp comments, there was a sliver of admiration and… affection?... in their voices. Or something like that.

Azayaka also was a great surprise. Inside class the girl was shy and a recluse, never attempting to talk with anyone who wasn't Izumi or Hoshigaki. Her physical grades were one of the lowest in their class, and that fact, coupled with being one of the prettiest and poorest girl as well, only led to being ostracized by almost everyone else, excluding Izumi and the Hoshigaki orphan, who was persona-non-grata as well.

But like Hoshigaki, out there near the river, far from the eyes of their teachers and classmates, something in the girl shifted, transformed, _bloomed_; and suddenly, Azayaka wasn't the weakest person in their entire year. Although her taijutsu continued to be mediocre compared to Izumi's, Hoshigaki's and even Mei's, she wasn't the _worst_ out there.

Mei had expected to go to two or three of these illegal gatherings Izumi had with the other two at the river. At most, she would attend for a week. But then the week came and went, and she found herself going back to their place (and when had Mei started referring to the river as 'their place'?) day after day.

She couldn't remember when Izumi had turned into Kurai, or Azayaka became Takara, and she definitely couldn't pinpoint when exactly she started to call the shark-boy Kisame in her head.

Mei couldn't tell when Izumi Kurai and her friends became so important in her life.

But she did know that she took care of her friends. Even if they were a cranky seven years old girl who idolized her father as if he was a god, a nine years old idiotic shark-boy with a sword fetish and a ten year old girl poorer than dirt who had a sister complex.

Wow, looking back at it, she was the most normal out of the entire lot.

But the fact was her new found friendship with the three changed Mei's view. She began to really look at all the homeless people trying to survive in the streets, and saw how easily two of her friends could be in their places. Kisame, she knew, once lived in the streets too, before moving to the orphanage at his teacher's orders. Had she passed by him one day and dismissed him like she did all the rest? And Takara, sweet, gentle, beautiful Takara, who was a rare gem with her kindness and pure goodness in a dark place such as Kirigakure, Mei had gone to her house once, saw for herself the deplorable conditions she and her family were forced to live in everyday, how she had to ask the help of her friends because no medic would lift a finger to save her mother and siblings since they didn't have money to pay for their service.

How many people like Takara lived in Kirigakure this way? How many good, kindhearted people had to work all day just to ensure that there would be food on the table for their family?

It made Mei realize how _easy_ she had on her, how good her life really was. Never had she gone one day in her life hungry, never had she arrived home to see that at least one of her parents weren't there for her, never had she slept in any place that wasn't a comfy and warm bed, knowing that she was completely safe from the horrors that could be found outside the walls of her family's house.

It made Mei realize how egocentric and petty she had been all those years, seeking the title of Mizukage only for herself, instead of trying to help the people who she would one day serve as their leader and protector. Worse, thinking them as lower than herself, not worthy of her respect, much less her friendship.

Oh, how _wrong_ Mei had been.

Young Terumi Mei would still become Mizukage of Kirigakure, no doubts about that. But now, she would do it for the right reasons; to love, help and protect every citizen of the Mist, from the lowly, hardworking fisherman and poor orphan with nothing on their name to the wealthy merchants and powerful shinobi.

And her first act as Mizukage would be banishing this bloody Graduation Exam.

Mei refuses to murder the people who opened her eyes to their world's truth, to their people's misery, so the moment the Exam began, she ran. She ran as far away from her friends as she could, setting off to the other side of the arena, because no one, not even the Sandaime, could force her to kill her precious friends.

No one.

Mei doesn't allow herself to hold back. In the future, she will make sure that this will never happen again, but right now is kill or be killed. And she has no intention of dying before achieving her dream.

So, for this one last time, she doesn't feel pity towards her fellow comrades. Her hands fly through seals as fast as she can, and the water inside the arena rises to her call, sweeping away any that gets too close to her, drowning them as quickly as it can. And when the water becomes too inefficient, she changes tactics. Now fire is her weapon, and lava spills out of her mouth. It's a pitiful attempt compared to what she has seen her father do, but it gets the job done and just the really stupid ones attempts to take her on now.

_Let them come_, she thinks, emerald green eyes flashing threateningly at the children coming at her.

_**Let them be the first ones to taste the might of Kirigakure's next Water Shadow.**_

**.**

Takara never wanted to be a ninja. Never wanted to turn into the shinobi she saw around the village, grim-faced men and women, with terrible scars, both in body and mind. She could never understand why someone would want to be like the cold-blooded killers that took pleasure in other people's suffering.

Her family fully supported her decision to remain a civilian, especially her parents, who didn't want to see their only daughter in constant danger.

In fact, all of them were so certain that Takara would never turn into a shinobi that her grandmother had been teaching her how to sew since she was five years old, so she could become a seamstress like her grandma and mother when she was older.

And then Yuuki Azayaka became pregnant.

Takara never knew such joy and terror as she did then.

In one hand, her mother was pregnant. Takara was going to be a big sister. Again.

And it was that 'again' that sent dread coursing through her veins. Her mother had been pregnant once before.

It had been a baby boy, surprisingly healthy, albeit smaller than the average newborn, two years younger than her. His name had been Mako, a happy child with wild brown curls and eyes as blue as her own. Mako had been the sun of her life, with his huge smile and carefree laugh. She remembered looking at him as baby, whispering words of love and promises of a bright and wonderful future.

Promises she was never able to fulfill.

He died when she was four, killed by a ninja. And she had been unable to protect him. In fact, he had died saving her from the shinobi, a two year old boy who never had the chance to see that life could offer more, much more, than what could be found inside the walls of Kirigakure no Sato.

And now her mother was pregnant once again, and how was she supposed to protect her new brother or sister?

She would have to be strong. But the only way to become strong in their village was to become a ninja. Turn into the same men that murdered her baby brother.

But then she had looked at her mother's growing belly, and she knew that it was never a choice to begin with.

She would become strong to protect her new sibling, the way she wasn't able to protect Mako.

Oh, how happy she had been, when the gods graced her with not one, but two new siblings! And Takara knew, from the first time she held them, she would die for their safety. What happened to Mako would never happen to another person of her family, not on her watch.

So she enrolled in the Academy, despite her parents' vehement protests, counting on her grandmother to convince them that it was for the best.

She could understand that they wouldn't like her being a shinobi, that they were afraid of her becoming like the people who almost tore their family apart after Mako's death. But Takara never suspected that the reason her parents were so afraid of her enrolling in the Academy was because of _this_.

She gasped, rolling in the mud to avoid a kunai who would have been buried in her head had she not scrambled away in time. Sending a kick to unbalance her opponent, Takara got up and ran, away from the massacre taking place around her.

But there was no place to run; the gates had all been sealed shut the second everyone was herded inside the arena.

Like cattle, they were. Cattle for the slaughter.

And what a slaughter it was.

A shout from behind her made Takara turn around and she sees, with wide eyes, the way Kurai cuts through the children, like a small whirlwind leaving only bodies in her wake, the silver of the dagger Takara had seen strapped to her waist earlier gleaming in her hand, steel already covered in blood.

It scares Takara, so much, to see Kurai like this. She has always known her friend to be stiff and socially awkward around people at the best of times, and downright frigid and unconcerned for other's feelings at worst. But this… This was different.

Kurai was borderline a prodigy. Everyone, from the Academy students to their teachers, knew that. She picked up moves and techniques like breathing, her crafty mind able to apply all of them in real-life battles. It was probably due to her imagination and strategic thinking, Takara suspected, that allowed her to win spars against Kisame so often. Because if it was down to pure physical strength, Kisame would win hands down.

But seeing was completely different from knowing. Takara had known that the possibilities of Kurai (and Kisame, now that she thought about it) killing before were high; but now her suspicions were confirmed. Kurai didn't hesitate, not even for a moment, to cut down the children around her, her face a blank mask of indifference. No matter how hard Takara tries to look at her friend's eyes, she cannot see a wink of emotions in the pink pools.

It's that blankness, that complete lack of empathy that frightens Takara the most. Because that person wasn't her best friend, her Kurai. That person was a merciless shinobi, like the one that murdered her Mako, and she knows that if Kurai ever gets that way with her, she will be dead, friend or not.

Pain shots through her arm and she sees a kunai sticking out of her forearm, blood already oozing from the wound. She had been still for too long. Gritting her teeth, she pulls it out and looks at the boy who attacked her. He was one of Gorou's friend, one of the many bullies that tried to pick on her in the beginning of the Academy. Isamu or something like that.

Before she can think about what she's doing, her hand lashes out, and the kunai still coated and dripping with her blood flies to the boy's throat.

A second later, another body falls to the ground.

Her hand shook and it doesn't takes long for the rest of her body to do so as well.

She had just killed someone.

_What have I done?!_

Seconds later, she doubles over in pain, gasping for air as an old sword is shoved into her stomach. A blond girl stands over her, her eyes triumphant as she stares at Takara, and the blue-eyed girl can't help but think, _this is it, I'm going to die, couldn't even say goodbye to my friends or Mariko and Ichiro…_

"Get out of the way!"

A blue blur shot past her, bringing down the girl who was ready to slit her throat with a bloody kunai. Takara sees Kisame rip the kunai away from the blond girl's hand, stabbing her in the shoulder with it, before harshly twisting the weapon and causing her to cry out in pain. After that, he wrenched it free and plunged it into her chest, right above the heart. He got up. The girl didn't.

Takara saw it all in state of frozen terror, her mind still trying to process what was happening. But Kisame doesn't gives her time to do it, and the next moment the sword sticking to her gut is yanked away and she gasps in pain, almost falling down into the muddy ground and in a puddle of her own blood, before an iron grip takes hold of her arm, making her hiss in pain when pressure is put on the wound there.

Kisame's grip slackens a little, but not enough for her to make any try to bolt.

"What the hell, Takara?!" he snarls at her, showing off sharp white teeth that makes her flinch. "Pay attention! What the fuck were you thinking, standing there like an idiot?! Do you want to die?!"

She tries to say something, to defend herself, but can't. She was an idiot, and was now paying the price for it.

"Can you heal yourself?" he asked her.

She nodded hesitantly. She had learned a bit of healing chakra from Yuna-sensei. But it was to heal bumps on the head and paper-cuts. Not a long slash on the stomach.

But she could try. She could at least try. For her friends, for her family.

"You stay here. Heal yourself. Lie down with the other corpses, close your eyes and pretend you're dead" he told her, casually pushing her to the ground in order to avoid a stray shuriken soaring at their heads.

Kisame lets a kunai fall to the ground next to her hand. He sends her a hard look.

"You better use that kunai in anyone that tries to approach you, and you better hit something vital. Or so help me, I will bring you back from the dead just to kill you myself."

"Aye, aye, captain" she says breathless, a hand over her stomach, trying to stop anymore blood from slipping away from the gaping wound.

"Sukoshi cares about you; you're not allowed to die Princess."

And with that, Kisame is gone, back to the massacre that their Graduation Exam turned out to be, killing everyone close to her.

Takara looks up to Kiri's cloudy sky and wonders if she will ever see it again when she closes her eyes.

The choice is taken from her when the blood loss becomes too much and she faints.

_**Maybe I will see Mako next time I open my eyes, **_she thinks. _**That would be… very… good.**_

**.**

Blood.

Blood everywhere.

Everything was _so_ _red_.

In her mind, Kurai makes a quick head count. She's good with numbers, always has been. She didn't know nor cared if it was a trait inherited from Elyse.

Their year had seven classes of more or less twenty students each. In total, over a hundred and forty children participated in the Academy's Graduation Exam today.

Only thirty-six students remained alive, being that some of these children would probably die in the operation's table from their injuries.

And Hiyasu had had the gall to complain about the village being short-staffed in shinobi force.

_Your disgusting, hypocrite pig…_

Said pig was speaking.

"For all of you who remain standing, I applaud you! Congratulations on passing your Graduation Exam. You have all proven to be true ninjas of Kirigakure no Sato! You will all receive your headbands before you step out of the arena, and anyone who needs medical assistance only needs to notify one of our available medic-nins." Hiyasu nodded his head to the grim-faced men and women standing near the closed gates before continuing. "A week from now, present yourselves in classroom A-1 to receive orientation and be placed in a squad. That is all. Good day."

With that said, the Mizukage left, many of the shinobi following after him like lost puppies. Her Father caught her eyes, giving a small nod before shushining away, going Kami known's where.

Kurai watches blankly as medic-nin swarmed the arena around her, collecting the bodies with efficiency and silence, rushing anyone gravely injured to the hospital.

Suddenly, a hand clamps down on her shoulder and she was already wrenching herself away, her closed first flying to knock out the person behind her, only to be caught in a grip far too strong for her to have any hope of freeing herself without the aid of chakra, something that she was currently running dangerously low. So instead, Kurai lets her other hand fly, the one holding the dagger her Father had gifted her with, the silver blade coated with other people's blood and ready to spill even more.

Her dagger would have pierced her attacker's neck, so close was it to the skin, had her hand not frozen when the sharp edge of a kodachi placed near her jugular made it itself known. She gasped quietly, cursing herself for her mistake, when she was so close of getting out of this blood pit alive and without any serious damage-.

"Sukoshi."

She opened her eyes.

"Kisame."

She hadn't recognized him. The boy was covered in so much blood that from afar, one would have never realized that his hair and skin color was blue. One of his hands was firmly holding her closed first away from his face, while the other held the handle of a kodachi that was barely an inch away from slashing her throat.

They were at an impasse, one wrong move and both would be dead.

Kurai looked at Kisame's dark eyes and clearly saw the beast within. The beast inside Kisame that howled for blood and that had had his fair share of it today. But a beast would always be insatiable, so of course it wanted more.

But the Exam was over, wasn't it?

Looking in Kisame's dark eyes, Kurai doubted that.

She doubted it would ever really be over.

The silence grew between them, and Kurai realized very soon that neither was willing to put their blades away. They would be risking too much, would be relying in each other too much if they did that. And both had just learned what happened to people who trusted too much.

But they were friends, right?

She could see the same thoughts passing through Kisame's eyes as they stared at each other. They have trusted the other so far, so why stop now?

And with an aching clarity, Kurai knew. Because now they didn't know who's an enemy and who's a friend. They would never again be able to look at a fellow Kiri-nin and not wonder how much of the blood staining their hands belonged to their enemies, and how much of it was from their friends.

_Can I trust you?_, their eyes seemed to ask at the same time.

She felt her heart tightening when she realized that the answer was… _I don't know_.

"Kurai! Fish-stick!"

Their concentration was broken by the new voice that roused them from their staring match. Though neither lowered their weapons, they looked at Mei.

A part of Kurai was infinitely glad to see the redhead alive and whole, but at the same time she felt guilty for feeling so relieved. Mei shouldn't mean enough for her to worry if the young Terumi lived or died. Kurai wasn't supposed to care enough to feel that relief. Only her Otou-sama should be this important.

"What is it, Mei?" she asks, her eyes never really leaving Kisame, even while she focused part of her attention in the redhead.

"It's Takara! She needs help!"

That was enough to snap them both back from their predicament and Kurai observed her friend silently, taking notes of her disheveled hair that had lost its usual style and came loose amidst the fight, the shallow cuts and few bruises that littered her skin. Apart from those, Mei looked relatively unharmed. At least she looked better than Kisame, who was covered in blood from head to toe and had a nasty gash on his forehead, which still trickled blood, or her, that knew her shoulder had been dislocated – again, damnit. Why was it always the shoulder?! – and could feel the pain exploding from her chest every time she took a deep breath, signaling at least one broken rib.

"What are you guys doing?! The Exam's over, lower those weapons!" Mei actually sounded scared as she watched Kisame and her pointing their blades against each other.

Slowly, very carefully, Kisame lowered his sword, safely slipping it inside the black leather sheath strapped to his back. Kurai followed his movements not a second behind and soon her dagger was back to the red scabbard attached to her waist.

A truce.

Kurai turned and followed behind Mei in silence, the hair on the back of her neck standing up as she felt the weight of Kisame's dark gaze.

_Can I trust you?_

… _I don't know._

Kurai really hated Kirigakure sometimes.

**.**

"Is she going to be okay?"

Mei's quiet question makes Kurai look up from staring at Takara's sleeping face, pink eyes now staring at the medic-nin who had patched up their friend.

"Hai. She will need to stay here for a few more days for observation, but she will heal" the medic stopped, a frown on his face. "Though the wound might scar."

Then he left the hospital room and all three children stood in silence, refusing to look at each other.

Until…

"I will become Mizukage"

Both Kurai and Kisame, who was leaning against the wall, turned to look at the young redhead.

"Stop talking nonsense" the blue-skinned boy spoke harshly, his dark eyes narrowing at Mei.

Said girl looked back at him with defiance, not shying away from his gaze. "I will become the Yondaime Mizukage," she repeated. "And what happened today will never happen again."

Kurai closed her eyes, willing the images away. She didn't want to think about that carnage again.

"You won't be Mizukage" she finally spoke softly after a moment of silence, loud enough to be heard by everyone in the room.

Her friends turned to look at her. She locked gazes with Mei, pink eyes staring deep into emerald ones.

"You won't become Yondaime Mizukage," she repeated. "Because Otou-sama will."

Truer words have never been said before.

Kurai's words didn't seem to stop Mei. "Then I will be the next one. I will be the Godaime, and no child of our village will ever have to live through this again."

The young girl than turned around and left the room, after squeezing Takara's hand as a goodbye and nodding at Kurai and Kisame.

Then it was only the two of them. The silence was suffocating.

Kurai didn't know what to say. She couldn't ask Kisame if he was alright. What sort of inane question that would be. It was obvious he wasn't fine, none of them was fine. They were forced to kill their classmates, had had to fight for their lives. What would they have done, had they faced each other during the Exam, rather than after? Would they have fought? Could they?

The thing that scared Kurai the most wasn't the fact that they could fight. She knew they could, they were always fighting.

No, what scared her most was the fact that she wasn't certain about who would win.

Kurai had caught a glimpse of Kisame at the other side of the arena. She had seen the way he cut through the masses of children, leaving half shredded corpses behind him. When had Kisame become so strong?

Kurai licked her suddenly dry lips and spoke, breaking the uncomfortable silence in the room. "I won't ask you if you're alright. I think all of us know the answer to that. But…" she faltered. What could she say? What was she supposed to do now?

She took a deep breath, feeling her lungs burn behind the bandages wrapped across her chest. "I want you to know that, whatever happens from now on, I'm here. I… I have your back, Kisame."

Dark eyes watched her for a moment before a tiny, sorrowful, broken smile appeared on his face.

"As I have yours, Sukoshi."

_**To protect it or to stab it…**_

_**I have your back, for better or for worse**_

**…**

_**AN: What do you guys think? Liked it? Hated it? Review and tell me! And here is a preview of what is to come.**_

_**In the next chapter of Dark Waters:**_

"_**I searched for her Yagura-san. And I found… nothing. It's like she's a ghost. Whoever Yukimura was, she's gone."**_

_**Pink eyes stared straight ahead, blank and emotionless.**_

"_**There is one place you haven't searched yet."**_

"_**And where is that?"**_

"_**Konohagakure no Sato."**_

"_**Team Thirteen will be Hoshigaki Kisame, Izumi Kurai, and Wazashi Akihiro, under Mizu no Ao"**_

"_**Tch, looks like things are finally going our way, ne Sukoshi?"**_


End file.
